Truly interesting; I have read true crime from the perspective of the family member of the criminal before, but rarely has it stayed with me as this did. Sharkey is unflinching, but not flogging himself. He lays the inner workings of his family and his past and himself bare - this is as much personal memoir as true crime - but it doesn’t feel like misery porn, or like the reader is being invited in to watch him undress. Neither are the details of the crime voyeuristic: we know what Sharkey knew before the trial, and not the most grisly forensic details beyond his grasp. What’s especially interesting here is the tension between past and present - his shared childhood and youth with his brother, and the present time of the trial. This stops the book feeling like a slog to get to the salient part, and the pieces of the psychological puzzle he lays out come together naturally, at pace. The cultural context Sharkey examines is excellent, too: he has an eye for the flavour and feel of the different eras he moves through, and he doesn’t pairs this with an awareness of attitudes towards woman and consent, and the age of consent, over these decades, and how they evolved while his brother never did. The ‘present’ era of the murder and the trial, 2001/2002, is also distinct: it’s not 2021. It’s a neat trick to manage a thoughtful, raw kind of account like this without tipping over into self-indulgence, nor into self-blame or self-exculpation.

In 2001, 15 year old Danielle Jones vanished on her way to school. In 2002, Stuart Campbell, Danielle's uncle, was convicted of her murder. Her body has never been found.

True crime usually tells the story from the point of view of the victim or the perpetrator - this book comes from a different angle. Alix Sharkey, is Stuart Campbells brother. In this book, which covers a dual time line, the events of Danielle's disappearance and subsequent investigation and Stuart's childhood in an attempt to find out what makes a killer.

Alix and his sister both grew up to have successful careers, Stuart entered a life of criminality at a young age. Alix has written a book which tells the story of two families, his own and the Jones, in a deeply reverential way. He doesn't hold back on his own issues and gives a unique insight into the forgotten victims of killers - their immediate family.

Unfortunately we are no closer to learning why Stuart did what he did or why he continues to keep Danielle's location secret but I applaud Alix for trying and I hope that he is able to find peace after the events described.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Which ever way you look at it this is a very sad story. Especially for Danielle and her family.
Lots of people have difficult upbringings, but very few kill innocent children.

This book is written by Alix Sharkey, a man who grew up with Stuart Campbell who is currently imprisoned for murder. The point of the non fiction book is to show how siblings with the same upbringing can take such different paths in life. It's quite a short read and if you know anything about the case there isn't a definitive conclusion as Campbell hasn't confessed to the murder of his 15 year old niece. Alix has tried to distance himself from his brother but they did have some kind of relationship and Alix discusses his suspicions about his brother throughout. It's a bit of a bleak read.

Alix Sharkey is the older brother of Stuart Campbell, the man convicted in 2002 of murdering 15 year old, Danielle Jones. Danielle's body was never found, and the author wrote this book in the hope his brother would finally do the right thing and reveal where Danielle's body is before his parole hearing scheduled for later this year.

As I began reading this book, I tried to recollect the circumstances around Danielle's disappearance, but it wasn't until I googled her and saw her picture that I remembered her from all those years before. The murder of Danielle is a very sad story, not just because of her age and the fact that her body has never been found, but also because Stuart Campbell was her uncle, someone who she should have been able to trust.

The author does a good job of detailing their family history, with the early years chapters interspersed with later year ones featuring information from around the time Danielle went missing and the subsequent trial. Their childhood didn't sound like a particularly happy one, suffering physical and emotional abuse at the hands of their father. It is to be wondered though, as you read, where it all went wrong - what happened to Campbell to make him become a child killer? Are you born with those tendencies or is it due to socio-economic factors (lifestyle, education, upbringing), and if so why didn't both brothers end up going down the same path? The author has recounted their past well, although the switching of the timeframes throughout the first half of the book did slow up the story of Danielle's disappearance for me. The recollection from the half way point onwards was interesting though and I found the information given throughout the trial gripping.

Of course, this isn't ever a book you could say you enjoyed, purely for the nature of the crime, but it was a captivating read which was well written. I was particularly interested in the forthcoming parole hearing due at the end of this year, especially with 'Helen's Law's now in force, meaning cases where the location of a body is never disclosed a parole review is likely to be denied - no body, no parole. The author has done really well to not make the book all about himself or his brother, voicing his concerns on many occasions throughout the book of the anguish and upset Danielle's family are still going through.

A very difficult but interesting read which I would definitely recommend. My heart goes out to the families of all those who have never been found - Keith Bennett (1964), Mark Tildesley (1984), Suzy Lamplugh (1986), Helen McCourt (1988), Suzanne Pilley (2010), April Jones (2012), of course Danielle Jones and countless others. Hopefully this book will go some way to encourage Campbell to disclose where Danielle's body is and give her family the closure they need.

This true crime read is amazingly gripping, and I can not recommend it enough to fans of this genre.

Powerful, disturbing, and hard to read due to the subject matter, this is an authentic, honest and actual narrative of the brother of Stuart Sharkey - who is currently serving life in prison for the murder of schoolgirl, Danielle Jones. Although both brothers were raised in the same harrowing way, it is fascinating that the brothers dealt with things in completely different ways. Written between timelines, this was slightly confusing at the beginning, but as the story divulged more, it was apparent why this was necessary.

My heart goes out to everyone who was affected by this nauseating crime, especially to Danielle's family who will never get the closure they deserve.

I was aware of the Danielle Jones case, however this is not about the case itself, rather it is about Aix and his relationship with his brother the convicted murderer. Full respect to Alix as this must have been very difficult to write, as when you are reflecting on someone else the magnifying glass is also on yourself, and I think that Alix realises that. Stuart never actually admits the crime, and more importantly does not talk about where the body has been hidden, meaning that Danielle's body has never been recovered.
Alix is very honest and talks about some information that must been very difficult to find out let alone talk publicly about, and also the fact that both stuart and Danielle were part of his family.
This is a must read for those who enjoy true crime.

A sad tale of two brothers.

Alix and Stuart are brothers, there are just 14 months between them. In this book, Alix Sharkey examines the brothers' history, and what had been an unhappy, violent childhood. They both had the same start, but one brother would go on to commit crimes, culminating in one so terrible, and it would be within his own family.

This book has changing time frames; the author tells quite a bit about their family history, events that shaped the course of their lives, then jumps back to the time of Danielle Jones' disappearance, and how the case develops. I sometimes found it annoying as it would be just getting on with the story about Danielle missing, closing in on Stuart, tension building..... then he'd jump back to a chapter in the 60s again, when they were kids. In the later stages of the book, it seems to build momentum and moves along better, with past and present alternating more equally. I found it easier to read here, and could understand better why he had chosen this style of writing their story.

A good true crime read about a very sad case, and from which the victim's family may never get closure.

This is a case that I didn't think I knew, until I searched up the crime online, and I remember it being such a high profile case.
I'm a huge fan of true crime, and so was really intrigued to read about the crime from the perspective of the brother of the murderer. This isn't a perspective I have read from with true crime before.
I'm not sure I can say I enjoyed reading this book - purely because of the nature of what this book is about. However it was super interesting, and the idea of nature vs nurture was a strong theme within this book - particularly with the final couple of chapters. (i won't say more in case it's a spoiler)
I will never understand why murderers who have been convicted, and are already in prison for life, don't reveal where the victims bodies are. It's heatless and incredibly frustrating - this is something I still don;t understand from reading this book. I wish it could have looked at this further.

This book is definitely a must for fans of true crime, and people that remember the specific case.

Alix Sharkey's journalistic background sets him off to a good start with this book. He is lucid, forthright and very candid about how tough his childhood was. Also, rather than injecting himself further into his brother's orbit than he actually was, Alix paints a picture of himself and his brother as growing apart as adults and tries to figure out why they turned out so differently.

The book is part memoir, part true-crime story, part legal procedural. All of the parts gel and flow seamlessly, Alix has taken this complicated story and presented it in a straightforward way without artifice. It reads so much better because of this.

What also strikes me as very truthful about this book is that Alix does not really speak too much about Danielle Jones. He clearly barely knew her and, rather than subsume her tragedy into his life, he simply acknowledges the clear heartbreak her parents face and he moves on.

This is an excellent read and is a cut above the usual memoir of this type.

What an insightful book that didn't require the epilogue to tell us just how much it must have taken the author to reach back into the past and rake over his early life with his brother.

Stuart Campbell, Alix Sharkey's brother abducted and murdered Danielle Jones one June day in 2001. Her remains have never been found and Stuart is coming to the end of his minimum 20 year sentence imposed on him.

This book simultaneously reaches into the past in two different time periods, one counting the time since Danielle's disappearance and secondly to their earliest days as brothers and both timelines shine through with an honesty that took my breath away.

What makes this book so special is that Alix doesn't cast himself as a wider victim, although I would disagree on some levels, but nor does he minimise the brutal childhood the boys shared. He shares his story, his fears that he shares his brother's, and father's, DNA and it is so easy for someone outside the story to truly understand how large those fears must loom. By writing the book in a way that avoids sensationalising poor Danielle's murder and focussing the story on the facts, the story is far more powerful than almost any other true crime portrait I have read by a relative of the perpetrator.

As readers we are lucky that Alix Sharkey is a journalist, the writing is engaging and is given texture by the range of episodes that is shared with us. Thank you Alix.

My Brother the Killer by Alix Sharkey is a remarkable true story that tracks the lives of Alix and his younger brother Stuart, whose lives took very different routes. The brothers were brought up in a violent household in the equally violent town of Tilbury and being around the same age and living " just over the river" I was taken back to harder times and the law of the jungle that was the norm growing up in the working class areas of the South East.

Alix was the outsider, Stuart was always "the good-looking one" , everyone's favourite ,who had girls flocking to him. As they got older Stuart went away to boarding school and came back a changed person.
Alix grabbed life by the throat and moved around the world as a successful fashion journalist mixing with the "beautiful people" while Stuart led a life of petty crime and monotonous jobs as the brothers drifted apart.
From the leisurely comfort of his Paris apartment Alix is stunned to learn that his brother back in Essex has been arrested for murder and the rest of the book looks at how such awful events affect the family of not only the victims but also the perpetrators. From thinking he knew his brother Alix finds that Stuart had been a prolific sexual predator for decades , using his charm and good looks to entrap his victims.

This is a fantastic read,Alix pulls no punches,not least when he's behaved badly or as he battles with the thought that if only he'd seen what was almost under his nose things might well have been different . He's almost painfully honest at times as he looks back in horror at some of his own behaviour and that of his "ln denial" mother who well-aware of the truth behind Stuart's recurring jail sentences while keeping it from Alix.

The story is uneven at times as it flits from autobiography to stream of consciousness and jumps between timelines but it's superbly written,as it should be from a top journalist.

One of the best books I've read this year..

A very honest account of the authors life with his brother especially , harrowing at times .It just shows how our up bringing shapes us all ..

I received an advance copy of, My Brother the Killer, by Alix Sharkey. I did not like this book, or his brother. I have no sympathy or empathy for him or his brother. Danielle is the victim, not them.

I have to be honest,I didnt really get much of a sense as to who Stuart was in this book,by the half way point I knew a lot about Alix,but not a huge amount about his brother.
One of those books that I just didn't click with.

I received a copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for honest review.

My Brother the Killer by Alix Sharkey

Couldn't put this book down and read it in two sittings. I remember this case very vividly living in Essex at the time.
An honest memoir from Alix Sharkey on his life , growing up in Tilbury with his drunken , violent father , his mother and siblings .
It almost seems wrong to say you enjoyed the book due to the horror of the subject , but Alix wrote in an honest , open and eloquent way on his life with his brother Stuart Campbell.