*A SUNDAY TIMES best crime fiction of the year selection*
– The Stolen Child
[ About The Stolen Child ]
It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. But there’s no waking up from this . . .
On board a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, Kimberly wakes to discover that her two-year-old son Robert has vanished from the cabin overnight. She and her husband Jason vow to do whatever it takes to bring Robert home.
But he is never found.
Forty years later, their therapist daughter Lily welcomes a new client into her home. Zach has a shocking theory about what happened to her brother Robert years before.
If Zach is to be believed, someone out there knows what happened on that ship. And they would do anything to stop the truth getting out.
But secrets always find a way to reveal themselves . . .
[ My Review ]
The Stolen Child by Carmel Harrington publishes today February 27th with Headline and is described as ‘a tense and emotional family drama about an abducted child, a desperate mother and a trail of lies.’
Carmel Harrington’s new thriller is a cracker as she takes the reader on a gripping adventure which opens on a luxury liner, The Carousel. Sailing on the high seas off the Spanish Coast in 1983, Kimberly and Jason are on board with their two small children, Robert and Lily, enjoying a dream holiday. But one fateful morning they wake up near Barcelona in their cabin to discover that Robert is missing. The liner is quickly sealed off and a frantic search begins but there is no trace of Robert. The search eventually moves to land, with accusations of all sorts circling. As the fractures start to set in in an otherwise loving relationship, Jason and Kimberly have to face a terrible truth – Robert is nowhere to be found. They return back to Ireland with their baby girl, Lily, but can never again find peace.
Lily grew up with neither parent ever really emotionally present. Now, four decades after Robert’s disappearance, Lily works from her own family home as a therapist. She found much-needed love and security with her husband Michael and their young son Ben and, although she has never forgotten Robert, her life has moved on. Until one day….
Lily receives a call from prospective new client but he is not all that he appears, His name is Zach and he has a revelation to share with Lily that could potentially lead to the possible truth behind Robert’s disappearance. Lily is completely shaken by his story and unable to fathom what she is hearing. Could there really be someone out there who could provide the details of what happened on that fateful day, someone with a secret so big it could finally reveal the truth of Robert’s disappearance?
A missing child is every parent’s worst nightmare and, in a note at the back, Carmel provides the frightening story that inspired her to write this book. Carmel Harrington has done a stellar job building the suspense and keeping the reader on the edge at all times as the story unfolds. With a serious amount of red-herrings wrapped around numerous twists and turns, The Stolen Child is a proper page-turner. Using a number of different timelines, the reader crosses the decades as the story gradually builds to a belter of a conclusion. Past events, hidden secrets, betrayal and unresolved issues all combine to bring a complicated and fraught element to the plot. Characters are depicted sensitively, many with heart-breaking backstories and carrying hidden inner turmoil but Carmel handles it all expertly.
A fabulous tense tale, The Stolen Child challenges assumptions at every turn, keeping the reader completely engaged in a wonderfully compelling thriller. Highly recommend!
[ Bio ]
Carmel Harrington is the internationally bestselling author of thirteen novels. Her last novel, The Lighthouse Secret, was an instant Irish Times bestseller. Carmel’s debut novel was a winner of multiple awards, and several of her books have been shortlisted for an Irish Book Award. She is a regular on Irish TV screens and radio and has been a guest speaker at literary events in Ireland, UK and USA. She was also the Chair of Wexford Literary Festival for three years. Carmel is from Co. Wexford, where she lives with her husband, children and rescue dog, George Bailey.
X ~ @HappyMrsH
IG ~ @happymrsh
