My Advent calendar has reached book eight and The Sacrificial Man by Ruth Dugdall which is another book and author which are new to me. I see, however, that it’s won or been shortlisted for a raft of awards. It’s a sort of crime book I think. The main character is a Probation Officer, which is unusual, and there have been a few books about her so this is part of a series – maybe each one deals with a different case. This book is about a woman who has killed her lover claiming that it’s assisted suicide but who has been convicted of murder and the Probation Officer has to make a report which will assist in sentencing.
The book was originally published in 2011 but it’s obviously dealing with issues that have become very current recently. I suspect, although I don’t know, that the author will explore some of the arguments around euthanasia, or what we now call assisted dying. I am willing to give this a try although I have to say that it’s not a book I would have picked myself, probably because it is dealing with a moral issue and I find a lot of issue led books to focus on the moral dilemma rather than the plot or character development. We will see how this one plays out. This is a copy in very good condition and it’s nice that it’s published by a smaller press – not everything I read has to be a bestseller.
Anne Is Reading 