The publicity generated by some book chains refusing to stock Breaking Silence - The Kahui Case will ensure there is an audience for this piece of self-serving literature.
Readers searching for some clues as to why premature twins Chris and Cru Kahui died will be disappointed.
Macsyna King and publisher Ian Wishart waste no effort in pointing the finger at the father of the twins, Chris Kahui. And because Mr Kahui has been tried and acquitted, King and Wishart are on safe ground in their blame apportionment of Mr Kahui and his immediate family. He cannot be retried.
The book is awkwardly written and in three distinct styles: of King's blunt language, a more refined writing style (I suspect edited heavily by Wishart) and scene setting and conclusions by Wishart. It is a stop-start book, heavy on the violence and failings of others.
It would have been helpful to have a reference to family members and their associations. Nicknames and abbreviations get confusing, even after going back a few pages to try to find who is related and how.
To be fair, the narrative from King is blunt and to the point with lots of *** where expletives have been removed, when she is left to her own words.
Surely, New Zealanders are mature enough to read the full words.
King appears to have overcome some incredibly bad family violence in her youth to do reasonably well at school after moving in with relatives.
She says she passed school certificate in five subjects and attained university entrance.
However, she says she can only go by memory as the police took all her family documents when they seized the twins' cot and other items from the house.
Now, here is the rub; King can recall intimate moments with various partners, feuds with family members, right down to the actual conversations, reaction of hospital and welfare staff, complicated drug regimes used for the twins, even more complicated medical treatments but she cannot recall some details readers will be obviously wanting.
She is seemingly honest when it comes to her own failings but one is always left with the impression that many of her failings were caused by others and she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. If only ...
Children from various relationships have been farmed out around relatives, according to King.
It is difficult to feel any empathy with this mother who, when things got tough, decided to bail on her children.
Middlemore Hospital staff come in for a verbal caning regarding the handling of the twins in their last moments. In fact, almost everyone comes in for criticism. The passages relating to the death of the twins and the heightened tensions around the wider family are difficult to read as a parent.
Wishart analyses the coroner's inquiry in a chapter called "The self-destruction of Chris Kahui". The result of the inquiry will be out soon but it is clear that Mr Kahui is seen by both King and Wishart as the killer of the twins.
This book is a blame game, make no mistake. It could be turned into a movie that would make Once Were Warriors look like a fairy tale.
The only positive part in the book is that King is with a new partner, who does not drink and smokes outside the house. She has given up on drugs, cigarettes and alcohol and is trying to resume studying.
As King admits on the last page, she is a work in progress.
• Dene Mackenzie is a Dunedin journalist.
