Not for the faint-hearted, this is a gripping novel about childhood crime and the impact it has when those children grow into adults.

Published in 2021, When I Was Ten is a first-rate thriller that tackles the thorny issue of parricide, loosely inspired by Mary Bell, who’s secret identity was uncovered by the media, years after she had been convicted of murder as a child.

Cummins maintains the tension throughout, making this one of those books that you simply can’t put down; the knife-edge thrills left my heart in my mouth.

Blurb on the back:

Twenty-one years ago, Dr Richard Carter and his wife Pamela were killed in what has become the most infamous double murder of the modern age.

Their ten year-old daughter – nicknamed the Angel of Death – spent eight years in a children’s secure unit and is living quietly under an assumed name with a family of her own.

Now, on the anniversary of the trial, a documentary team has tracked down her older sister, compelling her to break two decades of silence.

Her explosive interview sparks national headlines and journalist Brinley Booth, a childhood friend of the Carter sisters, is tasked with covering the news story.

For the first time, the three women are forced to confront what really happened that night – with devastating consequences for them all.