Review: The Fact of a Body

In The Fact of a Body, watching a tape of a convicted murderer turns everything Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich thought she knew, believed in, and had buried away on their respective heads. 

Ricky Langley has committed unspeakable acts, and seeing his face while working at a law firm deeply opposed to the death penalty, has made Marzano-Lesnevich realize her stance against execution may not be as firm as she had thought. This causes her to not only research Langley's case, but to delve deep into her own family history, to see how the secrets from her own past have brought her to the present moment.

This is one of those books that is both incredible and difficult, hard to read about subjects written about with impeccable craft and gripping motion. Marzano-Lesnevich has taken the true crime genre and merged it with the memoir genre, creating a hybrid that will break your heart as it draws you in, refusing to let go.