Customer Reviews

A Question of Innocence

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This book should have never had to be written. Luckily, Brandilyn Collins does a fine job of reporting the facts and making it into an easy to read form. Mallory Moore was only four years old when her half sister found her dead in her bed. All the evidence says Serena (a known compulsive liar) DOES love her sister, yet four months after her death, the evidence also says Serena smothered her little sister.

In her own words--in her diary--Serena admits to killing her sister. Serena's mother, Sharri, turns the diary over to authorities when Serena leaves the home, hoping to find her daughter (she figures they will take her seriously, as she does, Serena needs to be found and needs help NOW). Knowing the police personally know Serena's past history of false police reports and fantastical lies, she never believed for a moment she might have incriminated her own daughter. She honestly believed they would see it as she did: another lie coming from Serena in the midst of her mourning her sister.

Now wait a minute. I know what you are thinking. I was, too. Maybe she did do it. I mean, Mallory died from asphixiation. Serena wrote that she did smother Mallory. Serena is not exactly a "good" girl. She leaves the house when she is forbidden, she says horrible things to her mother and step-father. She tells people she has leukemia or that Mallory is really her daughter... the list goes on and on.

As I mention, the police do take the confession seriously, but that's where it stops. They ignore her OTHER diary, in which she writes what happened the day she found her sister. They ignore what the doctors say about Mallory in the autopsies (if there's no homicide... you get the picture). They ignore the fact that she lies about serious things daily.

Still, I admit that I still sometimes wondered if maybe she really did do it. In the end, though, the prosecutor secures the state's main witness and it is HE who helps me decide that Serena is indeed innocent and is being held captive to save face.

Is that all there is? No, Serena's defense is a circus act of idiots playing a role for TV cameras. You just have to read the book to believe it.

I wish the book moved at a bit faster pace, was a tad more exciting, but it does its job and tells a tragically fascinating tale that could happen to anyone's family.

Brandilyn can do real-life drama as well as she does fiction! At least in this book Brandilyn takes the time to make sure the reader understands the process.