We Begin at the End - Chris Whitaker

Only after turning the last page of Chris Whitaker’s We Begin at the End, did I learn that Mr. Whitaker is a British author and that the novel has done quite well in the U.K this year (it will be published in the U.S. in March 2021). I mention this only because We Begin at the End is so much an “American” novel in tone and point-of-view that I never even thought to check into the author’s background. 

This is one of those novels for which a reviewer needs to take special care not to inadvertently release any spoilers, so I’ll do my best not to mention anything that is not already revealed on the novel’s book flap. Just know going in, that this is a novel filled with the kind of surprises and revelations that you will dying to talk about with your friends after they’ve enjoyed We Begin at the End for themselves. 

Thirty years earlier, Walk, now chief of police in his small California beach town, gave the testimony that sent his best friend to prison. Now, that friend is being released back into the community, and Walk desperately wants to help him to make the most of the rest of his life. Vincent King, though, is both mentally and physically scarred by his years in prison, and all he wants from the people of Cape Haven, California, is to be left alone as he works at restoring his old family home. But it won’t be that easy for any of them. People are going to die…several of them. 

We Begin at the End has a terrific plot, one filled with so many twists and turns that it’s hard not to feel as if you’re on a runaway train as you approach the book’s final few chapters. But that brings me back to how easy it would be to spoil this novel for those yet to read it. Just about every time you feel as if all has finally been revealed, something else just as surprising comes along, and then you think surely that’s it - right up until the next twist in the plot jolts you. That’s a big part of the fun of We Begin at the End, but it can only truly be experienced at its best by those who pick it up knowing next to nothing about the plot details. 

Chris Whitaker

The complicated plot is all made possible by a cast of memorable characters, beginning with the self-categorized thirteen-year-old “Outlaw Duchess Day Radley,” a little girl who is proud of the outlaw blood in her family tree and only wishes there was more of it. Duchess has grown up quickly because she knows it is entirely up to her to take care of her drug-addicted mother and Robin, her six-year-old brother. She is fearless, and after she learns to shoot a pistol, she is dangerous. Robin is an emotionally traumatized little boy who clings to his sister for the emotional support that allows him to get through another day. Walk and Vincent King are complicated, memorable characters, too, but it is some of the secondary characters that will stay with me the longest, particularly those who appear in the second half of the book to play large roles in the lives of the children. 

Bottom Line: This is a book about half-truths, shades of grey, and secrets. Every character in the book seems to have secrets that they refuse to give up or try to justify even to themselves. It is a story about the loyalty of family and friends, and how that loyalty can so easily be misplaced or misunderstood. It is a story about good intentions going very badly, and it is a story of redemption. Don’t miss it.

Review Copy provided by Publisher