The rise in literary investigations of true crime is an important indicator of where people’s concerns are, both in society and in their personal lives. Is it just provocative, or do readers love reading about situations that are more difficult than their own? Or is it an Agatha Christie version of using one’s own deductive reasoning to figure out sinister events? Whatever need people get from these endeavors, it is clear that true crime is a very popular genre.

So here comes Eliza Clark, fresh off her great success with her debut novel, BOY PARTS. She has been designated a Granta Best of Young British Novelists for 2023 and has been a finalist for the prestigious Women’s Prize in Europe. Her second novel, PENANCE, has just been published in the US and will appeal most heartily to true-crime lovers who want to read a well-written work of literary fiction that is built around the popular genre elements. It’s a tough read --- a brutal read, actually --- with plenty of blood and guts on these pages, and Clark handles it all with aplomb. But she also loves the most horrific details of a victim’s unfortunate run-ins with the murderers, who just happen to be teenage girls.

"PENANCE is an interesting exercise in finding some value in stories usually relegated to the most tabloid of tabloids. In doing so, it uncovers some penetrating and very uncomfortable realities in our modern world."

Alek Z. Carelli is the protagonist of PENANCE, a down-on-his-luck journalist who needs a good provocative story to help put him back on top (he was canceled over a social media concern). A decade after the death of 16-year-old Joan Wilson by three teenage friends, Carelli sees his chance. While surveying and interviewing the families and what has happened to the girls since this nightmarish event, Carelli comes across some of the most salient and difficult stories in the lives of teens, parents, families and the discontents that modern life creates. His discoveries are painful and indicative of the reality that so many victims of such crimes suffer for the rest of their lives following the incident.

The Newcastle-born Clark understands the world these kids come from and the world in which Carelli is working. “Crow-on-Sea” is her chosen location, a typical town in the north. Carelli has settled in Crow so that he can uncover all the details of Joan’s torture and murder at the hands of Dolly, Violet and Angelica from her school. The opening scene is a very affecting and vivid description of Joan’s demise --- she is set on fire --- but she survives enough to crawl through the sand of the beach where she was left and tell the authorities who did it. Because it took place the night of the 2016 Brexit referendum, the media ignored the story.

As the “true-crime industrial complex” is turning its attention to this gruesome slaying, Carelli sees a new opportunity to exploit human suffering for entertainment --- entertainment that’s “tailored to our basest instincts.” He vows to help the community recover by getting to the heart of what happened and why. Can he do this without turning it into a lowdown horror story to appease tabloid audiences? Will Clark be able to recount his adventure without resorting to the same?

Clark ensures that her novel goes beyond the surface into the human reasons that everything has happened. The mean girl situations of any high school give way to something far more demented and sinister as the teens follow online “fandoms” where murderers are treated like pop stars. The perpetrators bond over occult games where they “manifest” harm on classmates like Joan --- and that is where things start to go way off-road. Clark presents the material in the way that Carelli does his discoveries. She uses a lot of literary devices to tell this story and keeps it engaging so that it doesn’t become too disgusting to read.

PENANCE is an interesting exercise in finding some value in stories usually relegated to the most tabloid of tabloids. In doing so, it uncovers some penetrating and very uncomfortable realities in our modern world.