The Legacy of Alice Waters

General Fiction

By Marilyn Jenkins

Publisher : YouWriteOn

ABOUT Marilyn Jenkins

Marilyn Jenkins
Welsh woman writer, Marilyn Jenkins was born and raised in South Wales and is a member of the WelshAcademy. She studied at Aberystwyth, Cardiff and London universities. She has worked as a teacher, lecturer and adviser in English.  For the past twenty years her short stories and poetry ha More...

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Description

This is a whydunnit. The heart of the mystery is how could a loving, beautiful, gentle nurse be guilty of such a heartless crime as poisoning an innocent woman and child. Alice Waters is executed, leaving her young daughter to be adopted. Later she searches for her identity and the truth about her mother. The answer lies in Alice's journals and the accounts of those who remember and loved her.

Early one morning, not long after the Second World War, a woman is taken out of her cell and hanged. How do I feel about that? The answer is: uncomfortable. The story of Ruth Ellis influenced my fictional story of Alice Waters. Like Edith Thompson, Ellis was convicted of immorality rather than weight of evidence. There were a number of extenuating circumstances where she was concerned. She also left a daughter, an innocent victim. Alice's crime is nastier than Ellis's. She poisoned her lover's wife and child. She left behind a little daughter and people who loved and suffered for her for decades. When, years later, her daughter and granddaughter go in search of the truth - will they discover a monster outside the understanding of humanity? Can she be understood and forgiven? Read the book and find out.

What Youwriteon reviewers had to say about 'The Legacy of Alice Waters':  

...this is superb - it's heart wrenching, emotional and very well written... 

a very talented writer to keep so many balls juggling with such ease, well done. ..S. Birch  

a rich interweaving of plot lines. . .  

I loved the idea of the journals, the explanation of why Alice did what she did…gradually revealed to the reader as it is to her daughter. . . 

G. Gibbons by email:

 

I so enjoyed your book, which was beautifully written.  It kept me riveted all Christmas Eve after I played Santa for my daughter and Christmas Day after cooking the roast.  I loved the suspense and the wonderful female characters – Dessie, Maddie, Emily, Harriet.   It was tragic on the one hand, but triumphant on the other – I loved that Maddie walked out on her deadbeat cheating husband (none of the married men seem to have understood the meaning of fidelity) and that the truth really did set her free in so many ways.

find further reviews at:   http://www.librarything.com/work/8199343;  

http://www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?view=frankieshaw