Give Me The Child by Mel McGrath
| Give Me The Child by Mel McGrath | |
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| Category: Thrillers | |
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Reviewer: Zoe Morris
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| Summary: A five star thriller, this will keep you on the edge of your toes trying to work out who is good, who is bad, and who is out to get you | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 384 | Date: July 2017 |
| Publisher: HQ | |
| ISBN: 978-0008215590 | |
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Cat and Tom are young professionals, living with their daughter Freya in a nice bit of London which is a far cry from the estate where Cat grew up. She's worked hard to leave behind her rocky start in life, and forge a name for herself in her field. Things aren't always perfect at home – after all, whose marriage is smooth sailing all the time? – but they're generally happy and settled. Until, one day there's a knock at the door. A police woman, social worker and young girl are on the doorstep in the middle of the night. This girl who is just about Freya's age is her half-sister, they say. Another child of Tom's, though one he knew nothing about. Conceived when his wife was pregnant, the result of a moment of madness, because isn't it always the way? Bastard. But, because Cat and Tom are those kind of people, the nice sort who do the right thing, they accept this unwanted gift and allow Ruby to move into their house while the whole sorry situation gets sorted out.
This book is a brilliant thriller that keeps you guessing. There are facts and then there are things we think we know, things we suspect, and things we're not too sure about. Told from Cat's perspective it's hard not to feel the hurt she is going through, first in the betrayal by her husband, and then in his refusal to accept her suggestion about how Ruby should be cared for. She works with troubled children for a living, this truly is her area of expertise, but Tom cannot see what is in front of him and won't accept his newly discovered daughter is anything other than as charming and worthy of love and attention as his other daughter, Freya. And he certainly can't see the threat to Freya that Ruby poses. Cat can see it clearly, but then Cat sees lots of things and sometimes they aren't real. A bout of psychosis in pregnancy lead to a label of mental illness that she just can't escape and even though to her it's in the past, any time she sees things people don't agree with they whip out the crazy card, she starts to doubt herself…it's just so hard
While she's not an outsider per se, Cat is sometimes excluded from the action. There's the psychosis, the fact that she's in a mixed-race marriage, an error of judgement at work a while back that almost derailed her career. She has a lot to prove and a lot of history, which can be a dangerous mix. But she's smart, educated and well enough off that she can do what needs to be done when the status quo can no longer continue. The combination of a tough childhood then and a slick professional life now give her the tools she needs to navigate both sides of life, lying low in squalor when she needs to and rising like a phoenix back into the public eye when it's critical that she reappear.
I devoured this book. There truly is no other word for it. I stayed up late, woke up early, wanted to see it through. And I was desperate for Cat to be believed. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, worse than someone not believing you and I was ready to march on down to the fictional police station and give them a piece of my mind. I had faith in Cat, even when she wasn't sure she could believe herself.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending us a copy to review. It was such a good read. A full 5 stars.
If this sounds good, you might also enjoy Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Give Me The Child by Mel McGrath at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Give Me The Child by Mel McGrath at Amazon.com.
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