For the Love of my Son by Margaret Davis

Hodder & Stoughton Ltd . 272 pages

I still have a lot of pending books to be read but the moment I picked this one from the bookshelf, I knew I had to get it.

You just HAVE to read this book. Margaret Davis narrates very painfully how her son, Steve Davis–a UK-born IT businessman based in Manila, married a Filipina prostitute, and four years later, was brutally murdered in his own bed.

Some factual details (like exchange rate, airport descriptions, etc) can be erroneous but they seem trivial compared to the issue at hand. Not only is it about cold blooded homicide and betrayal. Its also about the failure of the Philippine justice system, and the British Government as well.

A shocking, dissappointing and heart-breaking read. Read on:

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Steven Davis – fishing in 2001 For the love of my son Margaret Davis’ son was murdered in the Philippines in 2003. She has written a book about her experience.

Margaret Davis, from Bingham, found out that her son had been killed when she received a phone call from her son’s business partner Martin.“He just said to me that Steven had had an accident. I asked him ‘how bad’ and he said he’s dead. And then the line went dead. For the Love of My Son “It was a couple of hours later that he actually phoned me back.” When Martin called Margaret back and filled her in on the details – that Steven had been shot – she jumped into action and got on to a plane to the Philippines. “I heard about his death on the Thursday and then by the Friday I was on a plane.” For the first week Margaret spent time with Steven’s wife, Evelyn, and their two children but it wasn’t long before she started to get a bit suspicious. “Steven’s wife was a little aloof with me and more interested in what I knew about what was happening, asking me about Steven’s business partner (and what he’d seen in relation to the shooting)… I just felt the reaction was a little strange. Margaret and her family “I knew this girl like a daughter. She knew me extremely well but she wasn’t treating me as if she knew me well. “I had to give her the benefit of the doubt – we all react to grief in different ways.” Things weren’t happening for several weeks. Then the police came up with some suspects for the murder having put surveillance on Steven’s house. One was Evelyn’s brother-in-law and one was her boyfriend. Margaret went from a mourning mother to being, as Margaret describes herself ‘Jane Tennison from Prime Suspect’, fighting for justice for her son. By writing a book about her experiences, For The Love Of My Son (now published by Hodder), Margaret has managed to put the story to rest.