In this book, Carol Kent describes the events surrounding the arrest of her only son for murder. It’s a book that’s essentially about how everything can be going great and then your life can be turned upside down in a moment and, as Kent describes, you begin to question everything about your life. The book focuses a lot on the struggle she faced in the area of her faith in God, so if you’re a Christian you’re the target audience here. But Kent is also refreshingly blunt about the extreme emotional trauma and the book is very raw in a way that distinguishes this book from other “Christian Self-Help” style books. Kent isn’t exactly a good prose stylist, but the book does pull you into her emotional world to the degree that you really do empathize with her and her husband as they struggle to hang together after this world shattering event. And while it isn’t a true-crime book or a mystery primarily, there is still some intrigue in the story; why would a young military man without any criminal record and about to leave for a dream post in Hawaii leave his wife and two young children and drive six hours in order to cold bloodedly shoot a man down in a restaurant parking lot? Still, this is primarily a didactic book about how to reframe the way you think about the tragedies in your life and then move forward with your soul intact. Your mileage, obviously, may vary. 2 ½ stars.
tl;dr – emotionally raw, if not very well-written, book is both a memoir and an exploration of how we best recover from tragedies. 2 ½ stars.