The author’s father met and married a girl he was completely in love with. Her parents had 10 children together. When her father couldn’t take his wife’s cheating anymore, he shot her mother in the face with a shotgun.

This very personal and chilling account tells how over the years the children were mistreated and blamed for their parents’ mistakes. But it also tells the story of how they managed to survive and rise above their shattered childhoods. This powerful memoir begins in 1940 and spans 20 years.

Ava Jones Burnett wrote Murder in the Children’s Eyes for her own self-esteem and to help others who have survived tragedy. She says, “My siblings and I are all in our fifties and most of us are still unable to talk about our parents. We have not even gone into details to tell our children about their grandparents. We need to get this out, look at it for what it is and was, so we can move forward.” We are filled with “what ifs,” shouldn’t we strive for what we can be?