Here I am at the second round of my column dedicated to the world of books.

This week I'm going to talk about a very delicate and fluent thriller "My sunshine away " by M.O Walsh.

The book is set in Louisiana during a hot and sunny summer, in Baton Rouge a criminal act is carried out that shakes the whole quiet community.

The young Lindy Simpson is brutally raped as she comes back from school, she has lost consciousness and no one has any idea who the culprit might be. The community is base, Lindy is young, beautiful, blonde, loved and popular.

A smiling, active and serious girl, nobody expected that something so horrible could happen to her.

The police begin to investigate between the neighbors and the white houses with their perfect gardens, a rapist hides among the good families in the suburbs.

That period is a strange time for America, we are in the 80s, they were all struck by the tragedy of the Space Shuttle Challenger (1986) crashing down, in the book all remain shocked and traumatized, the strong patriotism is broken in the face of the fall of spacecraft and the subsequent death of the seven astronauts on board.

In addition, it is the years in which Jeffrey Dahmer acts under the name of Monster of Milwaukee, killing, raping, eating and disfiguring the corpses of a disproportionate amount of young men.

America is no longer a safe and golden place, people are afraid.

The narrating voice is that sweet of a boy in love with Lindy, excluded from the suspects.

He always watches her, spy her tenderly , his love is similar to an obsession, collects photos and objects of the girl and follows in the footsteps. Lindy became goth and he too, Lindy gets expensive clothes and he too. He becomes her shadow, idealizes her and talks about herwith admiration and fear.

He sees beyond Lindy's pretty face wearing the marks of that word to be spoken in a low voice: rape.

He sees the cuts on her legs, the attempts to feel alive by changing a boy as she changes her shirts, the pain under the hard girl's face.

The boys grow up and Lindy tries to forget her past but it slowly comes back out, the secrets, though drowned, know well when they come back to the surface.

A debut novel that took seven years of work, a little treasure, never yields to banality and devours like a bitter chocolate.

Sources for:

Space Shuttle Challenger: http://www.lastampa.it/2016/01/28/scienza/lo-space-shuttle-challenger-esplode-lorrore-negli-occhi-degli-spettatori-hDNU34Xm9LDcKCwYV76k6L/pagina.html

Jeffrey Dahmer and his story: http://www.serialkiller.it/serialkiller.aspx?aree_id=1&sottoaree_id=9&lang=ita&contenuti_id=22
Pictures : www.pixabay.com