Wow! What a book! Reads as a journal written by a West Yorkshire woman in her 40’s looking back on her childhood, teenage years and young adulthood. A wild child of the ‘70’s, biker chick and drug abuser, the book details the dark thoughts and actions of a troubled child who grew to be a troubled woman. While gruesome and dark, it’s also very poignant and doesn’t leave one feeling hopeless. Denby knows how to use words as the powerful tools that they are quite masterfully. A+ ( )

This book sucks you in with the first person narrative format. Billie is funny and perceptive. The more she tells you about her life the more mysterious it becomes until some shocking incidents are uncovered. ( )

Setting: Present-day Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
Protagonist: Billie Morgan
Series: Standalone

Billie Morgan, a 46-year-old gift shop owner, reminisces about her reckless
past and the bloody secret that crippled her in this powerful book. After
the death of her father, a brutal rape, and the steady neglect of her
family, Billie joins a motorcycle gang called the Devil's Own and spirals
down a path of self-destruction. In the prologue, you learn Billie's secret:
"My name is Billie Morgan. I am a murderer." Billie has to learn to live
with her guilt while supporting Jasmine, the heroin-addicted wife of the man
she killed; Natty, her beloved rebellious godson; and Lee, Natty's faithful
handicapped best friend. This web of dependability is threatened when a
reporter investigates the murdered man's "disappearance", fueling a chain of
events that uncovers all sorts of skeletons.

The diary format gives this story much of its power. You're inside Billie's
head, and you can't help but sit in her corner. If the book had any weakness
at all for me, it was the last two pages. Even though I wanted everything to
turn out well for Billie, those last two pages were too much of a "Hollywood
ending" for me. ( )

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2005/06... ( )