Haunting, intoxicating and heart-poundingly suspenseful, Little Deaths is certainly a gripping book about like, morality and obsession, exploring the capacity for good and bad within people.

It’s the summer season of 1965, and the roads of Queens, NY shimmer within a heatwave. One July morning hours, Ruth Malone wakes to discover a bedroom window wide open and her two small children missing. After a desperate search, the police make a horrifying discovery.

Noting Ruth’s perfectly made-up encounter and provocative clothing, the clear liquor bottles and appreciate letters that litter her apartment, the detectives leap to convenient conclusions, fuelled by neighbourhood gossip and speculation. Delivered to cover the case on his initial major assignment, tabloid reporter Pete Wonicke at first can’t help but perform the same. However the much longer he spends watching Ruth, the greater he learns about the darker workings of the authorities and the press. Soon, Pete begins to doubt everything he believed he knew.

Ruth Malone is enthralling, challenging and secretive – is she really with the capacity of murder?