Derek Smythe

Moving, 23 Sep 2012

At only fifteen, Shep was shot and killed while a robbery took place at his home.
Charged with his viscous murder Daniel Robins is sent to Death row, roasting in the anticipation of his pending execution.
Meanwhile Shep's mother, Irene is left with the emptiness and thoughts of the futility of her son's unnecessary murder and yet struggles, clinging to her religious beliefs, in the hope that she may be able to somehow get over her loathing of Shep's killer.
The inner anguish of the mother is never mawkish or sentimental but genuinely powerful, although I sometimes felt that the biblical doctrine was a bit self-consciously inserted.
Even so, the writing was good enough to… Read more