We Begin at the End

By Chris Whitaker

Book Overview

Author of Read with Jenna Book Club Pick All the Colors of the Dark, with over 1 million copies sold - An Instant New York Times Bestseller

"A vibrant, engrossing, unputdownable thriller that packs a serious emotional punch. One of those rare books that surprise you along the way and then linger in your mind long after you have finished it."
--Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds

Right. Wrong. Life is lived somewhere in between.

Duchess Day Radley is a thirteen-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Rules are for other people. She is the fierce protector of her five-year-old brother, Robin, and the parent to her mother, Star, a single mom incapable of taking care of herself, let alone her two kids.

Walk has never left the coastal California town where he and Star grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he's still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. And he's in overdrive protecting Duchess and her brother.

Now, thirty years later, Vincent is being released. And Duchess and Walk must face the trouble that comes with his return. We Begin at the End is an extraordinary novel about two kinds of families--the ones we are born into and the ones we create.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250759668
• ISBN13: 9781250759665
• Release Date: March 2021
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Such a compelling story.

We begin at the End is a wonderful book and you will fall in love with the main character.

Delving deep into the lives of various characters

This book got me at the first page, and it wasn't unraveled until the end, you identify with various people. Well-written.

Should be a classic mystery

Curious title led to unforgettable characters involved in ongoing puzzles. Feisty 13 year-old girl, Duchess, devotes her life to protecting and caring for her 4-year old brother when she realizes Star, her troubled mother, is not capable of parenting. Excellent and powerful writing. The reader encounters one puzzle after another as characters develop through the narrator, chief of police, Walk. Duchess labels herself an "outlaw" which sets her on a trail of tragedies and heartbreaking developments. Plot evolves with passion and horror to satisfying resolution.