The Last Six Minutes: A Mother’s Loss and Quest for Justice by Sandra Martins-Toner

So Very, Very Emotional
Review by Kim Cantrell

Regular readers know that I read a lot of true crime.  And I’m asked frequently how and why I choose to read such a genre.  It’s an answer that’s hard to put into words; even harder after reading a book like Sandra Martins-Toner’s The Last Six Minutes.

Matthew Martins was a handsome, vibrant young man, in the prime of his life when he was attacked in a SkyTrain Station in British Columbia, Canada.

Child Killer Katherine Quinn Smokes A Cigarette During a Court Break.

The reason for such a random attack?  Katherine Quinn, a 22-year-old mother of three, decided she wanted to the crucifix that hung from Matthew’s neck.  

When Matthew attempted to defend himself, Quinn screamed at her boyfriend, 27-year-old Robert Forslund, that she had been stabbed and demanded that Forslund take revenge.

Even as Forslund beat Matthew, repeatedly picking up and slamming his body to the concrete and stomping on his head, Quinn knew her claim of being stabbed was an outright lie.  But it wouldn’t stop her from handing Forslund the glass bottle that would be used to slit Matthew’s throat.

Yet, amazingly, this brutal murder would only be one of the indignities suffered by Matthew and his family.

In The Last Six Minutes, Sandra Martins-Toner describes so intensely the pain (and that word seems such an understatement) experienced in learning that your child’s life has been so violently and needlessly taken.  And when you think it couldn’t get any worse, you’re tossed into a cold, uncaring system that cares more about protecting the rights of baby killers than helping a family cope with their grief.

From the moment I opened the book, I laughed at the stories shared about Matthew.  I cried until my chest hurt at the sickening violence.  And then I seethed with anger and all-consuming rage at Katherine Quinn and her shameless, white-trash family.

But what I felt can’t even begin to hold a candle to emotions felt by Matthew’s mother, brothers, and stepfather.  And who knows what effects it will have on his little sister – born only 7 months after his murder.

And, to go back to my first statement, this is why I read true crime.  Although the crimes are difficult because they happen to real people, the emotions I feel are real, for real people.  When I hate, it’s directed at someone worthy – not a fictional character.  And when I feel sympathy and sadness, it is wrapped around a human being, not a figment of someone’s imagination.

While The Last Six Minutes does talk about the murder of Matthew Martins, it is more of memoir of his mother’s struggles to continue after such senseless violence touched their lives.

But if you read true crime, you  must read The Last Six Minutes.  Sometimes we have to come up for air and go beyond the investigations and the Courtroom theatrics to understand the personal trials and tribulations of the burdened souls left behind – the living victims.

 This book is available for purchase at Amazon.com.  “Like” The Last Six Minutes on Facebook.  Also be sure to watch the book trailer that follows below.

Be sure to come back tomorrow when I review the sequel Cry For Justice: A Murdered Child’s Legacy. You think it’s over, but it’s not. You won’t believe what happens!

A P.S. From Kim Cantrell: It’s not often that a book incites me so much that I feel the need to write a personal rant. (Okay, so it’s more often than I’d like, but that’s not the point.)

This time I don’t have a rant, per say, but a message for Katherine Quinn, should she ever be unfortunate enough to visit this blog.

Hold on folks, I’m unleasing my rage:

Katherine, you are a despicable person; a complete waste of a human being.

You may have taken the life of a child, but his spirit lives within his mother. You did nothing but arouse a beast, and Sandra will spend the rest of her life fighting scum like you.

I would think that you, as a mother of three yourself, would know you never mess with Baby Bear because Mama Bear is fierce and she will come out fighting. Of course, that was a waste of my time because you’re no mother; otherwise you wouldn’t have been out drinking, getting high, and trying to steal from children if you were.

Christians call it reaping what you sow, Buddhist call it Karma, Wiccans call it threefold…yet it all means the same thing: what you do will come back to haunt you. Do you not ever fear that you could walk in Sandra’s shoes someday? That it could be your child some punk decides to murder in cold blood?

Probably not, because that would require some sense of conscience and intelligence; which you have proven you have none.

Lastly, before I put you out of my mind forever because you don’t deserve space in my head, you and your trash family called Sandra Martins-Toner a “media whore.” Did it ever cross your mind for one minute that she was only in that position because of YOU?

Didn’t think so.