Book Review ~ End of Innocence by Zoë Apostolides

Mardle Books
18 August 2022

Truly Unforgotten #1

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

 

End of Innocence is the first in a non-fiction series ('Truly Unforgotten') exploring UK cold cases.

This book focuses on the 1978 disappearance of Genette Tate. The 13-year-old schoolgirl vanished while out delivering newspapers on her bicycle in the Exeter countryside; no trace of her was ever discovered. With new and rarely seen comments from family, police and inside the courtroom, the story links her case to the earlier abductions of April Fabb (also 13), Christine Markham (9) and Mary Boyle (6). 

None of these unsolved cases was assumed to be linked until 1990, when a man was apprehended having just kidnapped a six-year-old girl. That man was Robert Black, a notorious murderer about whom relatively little has been written. Black was eventually charged with four murders and sentenced to life, though the true number of his victims was very likely far higher. Police were preparing to charge Black with Genette Tate’s abduction and murder when he died in prison in 2016.

My Review ..

End of Innocence sees the start of a new crime series which explores infamous and unsolved cold cases. This first book explores the history behind the unresolved disappearances of young girls spanning from the 1960s, the 1970s and right up until the 1990s, all of which may be attributed to the notorious child kidnapper, and murderer, Robert Black.

Without sensationalisng the tragedy of the disappearances of so many young lives the book relates the facts which were available at the time and the police responses to complex investigations which left them baffled. Without the use of modern day technology the investigations relied on 'good old policing' methods, namely door to door conversations and a heavy reliance on witnesses and with paper trails which stretched endlessly it was never easy to correlate information. Although most of these crimes were committed in broad daylight no-one saw ever what happened until a major breakthrough in 1990 when an competent witness saw an abduction take place, and at long last Robert Black was apprehended.

End of Innocence is an interesting and well put together dossier of one man's alleged crimes, the dedication of those investigative teams, up and down the country, who never gave up hope that one day they would be able to offer some sort of resolution to those grieving families who never came to terms with the devastating loss of a beloved child.

About the Author..

Zoë Apostolides has worked as a journalist for 10 years covering lifestyle, literature, art and education for the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph and others. She has ghost-written several memoirs and biographies and combines this with editorial work as a literary agent with a particular interest in crime, horror and narrative non-fiction across all genres.

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