The Murders of Lillian Ross by Sirena Van Schaik – Review by Santana Hicks

The Murders of Lillian Ross by Sirena Van Schaik
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was written so powerfully. It is NOT for the faint of heart. It touches a lot of “taboo” subjects like abuse, rape, prostitution, as well as suicidal thoughts in graphic detail. You can tell that Sirena Van Schaik is writing from the heart and from experience, making this novel even more heartbreakingly wonderful. Once started, I couldn’t put it down. As a survivor myself, I really felt connected to the main character, Allison. Sirena Van Schaik described everything perfectly.

It takes a different direction than most books which makes it very unique on it’s own. It circles around the life, both past and present, of a true crime author named Allison. Allison is writing her next book about Lillian Ross, Lillian is in prison for the murder of two men.

Once Allison meets with Lillian at the prison, she realizes that they both have a lot in common. This makes Allison’s past come up to haunt her. When Lillian was first convicted for the murders, she didn’t even try to fight the sentences. Years later, she gets in contact with Allison finally ready to talk about why she took the life of two men. It is a heartbreaking tale of a bad childhood, which led into a bad, if not worse adult hood, until she just broke.

Sirena Van Schaik was very good of getting into the mind of the murderer and why she did what she did. The author also had a very good balance of switching from past and present of both main characters as well as throwing in some scenes of the court case, evidence, etc. I would recommend this book who is looking for something real.

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