A 2017 Globe & Mail Best 100 Book of the Year
Finalist for the 2018 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction BC Book Prize
Finalist for the 2018 Governor General’s Literary Award
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A work of staggering grace — a book that highlights the nature of restorative justice for perpetrators and victims alike. It is also testament to Cragg herself, whose fierce search for empathy allows her to travese a seemingly impossible divide.
Quill and Quire
Dead Reckoning asks important questions: about what justice means, how we can repair harm and what society asks of the victims, as well as the perpetrators, of the most heinous crimes.
The Globe and Mail
This is an extremely powerful story for the public to have access to, and one that smashes society’s assumptions about both victim and perpetrator.
Tara Henley, Toronto Star
Cragg’s search for truth opens important questions on victim’s rights, the nature of justice and how to repair harm.
Jade Colbert, The Globe & Mail
Cragg’s experiences of and thoughts about holistic justice captivate even as they provoke.
Brett Grubisic, Vancouver Sun
Carys Cragg’s father’s murder was a tragedy, but the whole point of tragedy is that order is restored. In Dead Reckoning, she charts her tortured path from chaos to recovery with marvellous insight, determination and seering honesty. This is a book for anyone whose life has been torn apart, seeking to put the pieces back together.
Wayne Grady, author of Emancipation Day
What a brave, informative and deeply moving book this is. Carys Cragg takes us on her journey to get to know her father’s killer and to understand the man and the moment that changed her life forever. From the girl that she was to the advocate for at-risk youth that she has become, Cragg’s life and work give her a unique and powerful insight into crime’s preventable causes and its devastating aftermath.
Sonja Larsen, author of Red Star Tattoo
Dead Reckoning is one of those books that will remain on my mind for a very, very long time. I applaud Carys Cragg’s personal journey, and the graceful and highly articulate writing she employs to share her journey with readers.
Amber Dawn, author of Sub Rosa and How Poetry Saved My Life
What strikes me most poignantly in Carys Cragg’s Dead Reckoning is that she is motivated by her needs, fired up by her wants. Her integrity is expressed by her vibrant tenacity to share in dialogue with the offender, the man who took her father’s life. Her clarity of expression is boundless. I celebrate her spirit.
Margot Van Sluytman, advocate and justice advisor
With remarkable candour and extraordinary insight Carys Cragg’s memoir examines central elements of transformative justice – truth, responsibility and punishment. Healing becomes not reconciliation but compromise, as Cragg’s story shifts from the narration of her father’s murder as a moment of horror and devastation to a journey of surrender, acceptance, and even forgiveness.
Marina Cantacuzino, Founder, The Forgiveness Project
Cragg’s own tenacity, integrity, and wisdom, shine through in this book, offering a testament to the revolutionary power of a life well lived. Reading this memoir left me feeling hopeful that a more just, caring, and relationally responsible world is within our collective reach.
Dr. Jennifer White, Director, School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria
Carys Cragg writes with intensity and vulnerability, building suspense against a backdrop of her own self-examination and her critique of the systems she encounters, whether familial or societal. As both a professional in the formal justice system and a restorative justice practitioner, I would recommend this book to anyone involved in or seeking greater understanding of either field.
Douglas Hillian, Vancouver Island Youth Justice Director, BC Ministry of Children and Family Development
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