The Hidden Side of Ruth Malone, the debut novel by Emma Flint, is a success, a noir novel set in the 1960s and inspired by the Alice Crimmins case and the unsolved double murder of her children.
On July 14, 1965, a morning like any other, Ruth Malone goes to wake her children. But when she opens the door to their room, it is empty; the children have disappeared. The police are quickly notified, and the search begins.
But Ruth Malone is not a woman like any other. Ruth is beautiful, young, independent, she loves men, and this will be her downfall.
Due to the mother’s personality, which is so inappropriate for the time, the police do not involve themselves greatly. Two days later, Cindy’s body is found in a vacant lot, followed shortly by Frankie Jr.’s. That’s all the police, the press, and public opinion need to condemn Ruth Malone.
The Hidden Side of Ruth Malone is a journey into the past. The author, Emma Flint, powerfully and accurately transcribes 1960s American life in a working-class neighborhood of New York. We closely follow the character of Ruth Malone, a woman who never leaves the house without being well-dressed, made up, and perfectly coiffed. A woman who embraces her beauty, her body, her desires. A woman who works. A woman who is a mother different from all the mothers of the time. Does this make her a bad mother? A mother who kills her children?
Among them, only one person will try to understand who Ruth Malone truly is. This is Pete Wonicke, a young journalist recently arrived in New York. Attracted to Ruth, shaken by this young woman, he embarks on a secondary investigation to prove her innocence.
The Hidden Side of Ruth Malone stands out for its oppressive and suffocating atmosphere, for its retrograde yet so real vision of women of the era, and for a botched investigation because Sergeant Devlin is convinced that she, “the slut,” killed her children…
The detective plot is almost secondary given the chilling atmosphere, the relentless pursuit of Ruth without conducting other verifications, other searches for evidence.
Emma Flint, with precise writing, describes so well this street, this neighborhood, these inhabitants, and the tragic Ruth. You can sense something is off about her, her obsession with cleanliness, her problem with her scent, her image, and one might regret that the author didn’t explore this explanation further…
Despite this minor shortcoming, we are engrossed in Ruth’s distress, unable to decisively judge her involvement or lack thereof in this sordid affair.
But Emma Flint expertly leads us to the final resolution, completely cruel and unexpected!
