Gemma Hoskins

Grab a chair, a cup of coffee, and settle in as Gemma Hoskins shares her story.

Gemma is well known as one of the key citizen investigators of the 1969 murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik - a former high school teacher of Gemma’s whose brutal homicide was described in the 2017 Netflix documentary “The Keepers”. In the documentary, Gemma and her colleague, Abbie Schaub, set out on a multi-year investigative journey to find Cathy’s killer, and end up uncovering of a network of horrific pedophilia and sexual abuse, masterminded but not limited to clergy members situated at Gemma’s Maryland high school.

In this book, which is best read as a companion piece to the documentary, Gemma provides her back story, providing insight into her childhood, school life, friendships, romances as well as some broader context leading to her role in the examination of Cathy’s murder.

Gemma tells her life story unapologetically, just because “it makes her happy”. And she does it well - the easy conversational style of this book, along with Gemma’s brisk, no-nonsense telling of it, makes for interesting reading.

Gemma herself comes across a little bit like a real-life “Olive Kitteridge” - direct and somewhat prickly, definitely someone who knows her own mind - and yet it’s impossible not to feel for her. Her motives, her focus, and her strength of purpose in seeing this terrible journey through as well as in providing resources and support for victims of abuse everywhere are inspiring to read.

Some on the passages I noted in this book included:
- “Cozy is sometimes hard to be”

- “My philosophy is that every day be spent doing something productive, something therapeutic, and something fun”

And on a chilling note:
- “The nuns did not mess around, even the nice ones. The priests were another story. They walked around the school and playground like they owned the place, because I guess they did.”

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys inspirational memoirs and particularly if you follow the Cathy Cesnik story,

3.5 stars

A big thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, Mascot Books and the author for an advance review copy of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.… (mehr)