Into the Water question

As I Read It
I am afraid Into the Water might be misread, the reason being that part of it is misleading - I think on purpose. Paula Hawkins seems to be fond of muddying the waters and tricking readers into being distracted from the real issues. Many hints and clues and innuendoes were apparently aimed at blurring the key concerns - about guilt and love.
Guilt was what Patrick Townsend and his son Sean were afflicted, the father on account of his having deprived his seven-year-old son of his mother by killing her and his grown up son of his wife with whom he fell in love, and the son since at the age of seven he "was terrified" and "cowered back in [his] seat," "trying to get as far away as [he] can" while his badly maimed mother desperately "reached for [him] and touched [his] hand."
And love was what prompted Patrick Townsend to confess to and get convicted for a crime he did not commit in order to spare his son and the woman he loved.