My Brother the Killer: A Family Story

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The 15-year old’s body was never recovered, but Danielle’s parents soon learned that her ‘Uncle Stuart’, a close family friend, had concealed a decades-long history of sexual violence against teenage girls. I felt sick to my stomach at moments within this book, such as Stuart’s reluctance to reveal the whereabouts of Danielle’s body. I’d never actually heard of this case before, and I wonder if that’s because I was only 4 years old when it happened.

The book has a great narrative style flowing backwards and forwards between the past and present as the author investigates his own back story and relationships with his father, mother and friends at school, as well as the different stages of the investigation and subsequent trial of his brother as he finds out more of his hidden past. The book is well written and shares the boys childhood and the conditions that they grew up in along side the disappearance of Danielle Jones but I wish it hadn’t flicked backwards and forwards so much. Twenty years ago, he was convicted of the kidnap and murder of his 15-year old niece Danielle, daughter of his wife’s brother. The author could have at least detailed what the prosecutors THOUGHT (or alleged in court) happened to the 15-year-old girl. 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.I love to read true crime mainly from a psychological perspective, as that’s what I’m studying at university. There's an awful lot of anxiety about how this would affect his daughter, worry about the way her peers would react to the news. I think in talking about their past, Sharkey deftly describes why both he and his brother ended up with the problems they had in early adulthood, but without excusing any of his brother's behavior, musing near the end that if their childhood caused his brother to murder a teenage girl, wouldn't he be right there in prison with him?

He doesn't hold back on his own issues and gives a unique insight into the forgotten victims of killers - their immediate family. Overall, this was a really good piece of true crime writing, especially if you love to know about the background behind why his brother may have killed. His brother has neither confirmed nor denied, so it's only speculation on the author's part, but there's a sense that he's desperate for it to be true, as this could wrap up his entire deviation with a neat little bow. But if you come into this knowing it's an exploration of the crime through the lens of a memoir about the author and his brother, you'll understand in advance what you're getting into.

Despite his conviction, a lost appeal, and repeated pleas by her parents, Stuart has steadfastly refused to reveal the location of his victim’s remains, condemning the girl’s parents to two decades of unresolved grief.