A unique style of book which ewaves two separate true stories together - very sensitive topics dealt with, certainly not an easy read but it certainly kept me interested

Fab read. Could not put down. Highly recommended to all. Believable characters. Great author. Will be watching out for more titles.

Very well written book, thoroughly enjoyed it, it was an interesting read, part true crime story part memoir. Would definitely recommend

The prose here is gorgeous. I was enchanted, captivated. In the chapter where the author confronts her grandfather about his abuse, I held my breath. I loved the way the author wove together her own family story and the story of Ricky and his family, how she linked past and present, how I learned about the points of similarity in the two tales (the lost sibling, the child abuse). I will look out for other books by this author.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich for the opportunity to read and review a copy of The Fact Of A Body.
I thought the book was a good read. There are 2 storylines interwoven in this book, one being about sexual abuse while the other is about a child murderer on death row. Both storylines flow well together, and are easy to follow.

While working as a legal intern Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich is tasked with working on the retrial defence of convicted murder and child molester, Ricky Langley. The details of Langley’s life and crimes, leave Marzano-Lesnevich confronting issues from her past and questioning her stance on the death penalty.

Uncomfortable is a good way of describing reading The Fact of a Body made me feel. Uncomfortable with the subject matter, but also uncomfortable with the idea of the book in a way that’s difficult to explain.

This is a true crime book and features detail of child sexual abuse and murder. The review, let alone the book, might not necessarily be something everyone would choose to read. I put this as the beginning to give you that choice.

Of course neither Alexandria wasn’t able to choose and neither was 6 year old Jeremy Guillory.

In 1992 Jeremy Guillory knocked on the door of his neighbours house to see if his friend was available to play. In actual fact his friend had gone fishing for the afternoon with her father but Ricky Langley choose to tell Jeremy that he wouldn’t be long and invited him in to wait. Ricky’s story of what happened after that has changed on a number of occasions over the years but the fact of the matter is he murdered Jeremy, wrapped his body in blankets, stuffed a sock in his mouth, and hid him in his wardrobe. When Jeremy’s mother knocked later to see if anyone had seen her son Ricky said he hadn’t. Later Ricky called the police on her behalf. He gave her coffee whilst the search continued in the area that night.

Days later the police were notified that Ricky Langley was a sex offender. They found Jeremy’s body in his wardrobe.

At trial Ricky was sentenced to the death penalty. Years later, when his case was appealed, Ricky’s mother gave evidence that whilst she wanted him punished for her sons death she did not want him to die. His sentence was transferred to one of life imprisonment.

Shortly after that the author began working for the defence firm that had represented him. She was at that time at Law School and vehemently opposed to the death penalty. She watched the video tape of Ricky Langley being interviewed and admitting to murdering Jeremy. She wanted Jeremy to die.

Over the course of the book we learn that Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich was herself the victim of sexual abuse, her maternal grandfather being the perpetrator. He took the opportunity late at night to sexually abuse her and her sister in the family home. He threatened her, should she tell. When eventually her parents because aware of the abuse, also experienced by her sister, they never challenged the matter they simply stopped him staying over. They did not involve the authorities though they were both lawyers.

Alexandria was just a young girl when the events took place and the book follows her as an adult trying to make sense of the decisions taken by her parents. Trying to make peace with them.

In telling her story Alexandria uses the framework of the story of Ricky Langley, the paedophile responsible for murdering Jeremy Guillory. She retells his story using court transcripts as the basis but elaborating with fictional assumptions as necessary. Ricky has a tragic background and it started long before he was born when his parents had a car accident that resulted in the death of their son and a daughter. Ricky’s mother was so badly injured in the accident that she spent months in hospital in a full body cast. She was allowed to go home for New Year and somehow, despite this literal full body cast, she got pregnant with Ricky. She was advised to terminate the pregnancy given that she had been pumped full of drugs and that the pregnancy had only been discovered at 5 months and the cast had prevented her body from growing with it. She would not hear of it. She hoped that this was a blessing come from all that had happened.

There were secrets in this family too and when Ricky started having dreams about a dark headed boy his mother told him about the brother who had died before he was born.

By his late teens Ricky knew that he needed help because he was attracted to children, particularly 6 year old boys. He knew that he needed locking up. He didn’t get help and started offending. He was a model prisoner when locked up though it was reported that he had said his only mistake in what he had done was leaving the child alive.

His next prosecuted event of abuse was the murder of Jeremy. Langley denied that he had abused the little boy in anyway although there was semen on the blanket wrapped around his body.

The retelling of the life of Langley was fascinating and the facts of the murder of Jeremy horrific. But they happened and it is interesting to see how people deal with these events. How Jeremy’s mother dealt with what happened to her little boy over time. How the trial Judge at the retrial dealt with the matter. How the father of the little boy of Jeremy had gone to visit dealt with it.

Alexandria shares her own story so honestly and it’s not without emotion but it isn’t overly dramatic. The events are dramatic, there’s no need for embelishment. She is respectful of her family and clearly loves them but presents them warts and all, showing how families are but also how hers was. How many things are done because they should be or because at that moment in time that’s the best you can manage and you never get to revisit that moment and make a better decision. Should you be judged therefore? Should you punish yourself forever because perhaps that was the wrong decision? How do you move on.

The most poignant part for me was when she told her mother one day about having counselling. She said to her mother that the counsellor had suggested that should their family home ever be destroyed she should drive the digger. Her mother replied, “No I’ll drive the digger”. And yet they had never really spoken about the abuse, her father at one point suggested that it had never happened and her sister decided to live as if it hadn’t.

It just goes to show that just because you don’t think they’re processing it doesn’t mean that they aren’t.

This is a horrifying story but a common one. Paedophiles offend in the shadows of secrecy, fear and silence. Those occur because of shame. People in families with paedophiles have to realise that it is a disease, a sexual preference. It is not a one off mistake. You can’t hide from it. This book shows us the damage that can be done, not only to the next child but to the previous one, by brushing it under the carpet.

This is a very highly recommended read and I’ll be interested to read more from the author.

More memoir than true-crime investigation, this book charts, in lovely prose, Alexandria's personal journey and the first real case she worked on as a law student/intern at a New Orleans law firm. She finds parallels with her own life, as a survivor of child sexual abuse, working on a case for a firm that defends the child murderer/paedophile Ricky Langley. She finds the story not told in the courts and the newspapers, years after first meeting Langley in Angola prison, Louisiana, and in the process starts to heal her own hurt.

As a law student, Alexandria finds herself in Louisiana, ready to passionately defend clients against the death penalty. Until she happens upon the case of Ricky Langley, a paedophile and murderer, whose story hits a little too close to home. Unable to stop thinking about the case, she goes on a mission to understand both Ricky's case and the abuse and realities of her own family life.

She fictionalises Ricky's history, and the moments of his crime, weaving them deftly with stories of her own life and childhood. At times, you feel the (rightful) anger and disgust towards Ricky, but at times a deep sadness and almost sympathy for the facts of his own life. It's incredibly raw to read Alexandria's grappling with her own history and experiences, and she doesn't shy away from the true complexities of life; how you can simultaneously feel that disgust and that sympathy. She discusses how the point at which we enter the story affects the truth and our feelings about it, which will become clearer if you read it; if you just take Ricky as he was when he murdered Jeremy Guillory you may feel quite differently than if you look back to the facts of his conception and birth and go from there.

I'll leave it there because I think it's something you have to experience on your own, and I would hate to spoil it for you. But needless to say, this book is unlike anything I've ever read before; it's beautiful and thought-provoking and powerful.

This book is unusual in that it takes the trope made familiar by the Serial podcast (wherein the narrator not only delves into a crime but also draws metaphors and parallels to her own life) and cranks the intensity up to maximum.

Marzano-Lesnevich is, for sure, a great writer. Her prose zings and crackles, burning with strong imagery and emotion. Her search for the person behind the usual media white noise of a child killer is both illuminating and deep.

However, I still cant get my head fully onboard with this style of journalism, be it podcast or in written form. It feels almost narcissistic for someone to haul two very disparate genres of writing (true crime and autobiography) into one book.

Although I felt deeply for the author's accounts of the abuse she suffered as a child, what sat less well with me was that she spends some time imagining the components of many scenes. As I read this did not sit well with me, she uses the phrase 'I imagine' quite a lot in the book, this did not sit well with me, especially concerning the fate of the killer and his upbringing. It seems a bit of a leap from the dry, hard facts of the case files, to then go on and colour things so much.

Maybe its me, I may be out of touch with this style of writing, it just feels a little hard to buy in to when a book presented as factual contains imagined emotions, words etc. Of course, the imaginings are based on case files and they may be on the money but we can not be sure.

Still, this book is very well written, its an unusual melange of genres, slipping from court testimony to the author's early childhood memories. She is massively brave confronting her demons and putting it all down on paper and I applaud her for that.

This books is unusual but very interesting. I think I need to read some more writing in this style to get my head on board.