THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2018.
About the book
On a stifling summer’s day, eleven-year-old Jack and his two sisters sit in their broken-down car, waiting for their mother to come back and rescue them. Jack’s in charge, she said. I won’t be long.
But she doesn’t come back. She never comes back. And life as the children know it is changed for ever.
Three years later, mum-to-be Catherine wakes to find a knife beside her bed, and a note that says: I could have killed you.
Meanwhile Jack is still in charge – of his sisters, of supporting them all, of making sure nobody knows they’re alone in the house, and – quite suddenly – of finding out the truth about what happened to his mother.
But the truth can be a dangerous thing . . .
Published by Bantam Press
Purchase Links
MY REVIEW
Having loved The Beautiful Dead by Belinda Bauer, I have been eager to pick this up and even more so since it was named on the The Booker Prize longlist! And having just finished it today I think I can see why it is! Full of so much tension and intrigue, this book really does a great job of keeping you guessing throughout.
I was a little sceptical at first though! I found the pace a little slow to begin with and some of the events a little too unbelievable, but once the characters had to time to shine and share their stories I began to eagerly anticipate the next ‘reveal’ and the latest twist! And there were lots of those to enjoy and mess with your mind and emotions!
The start really set the tone, with the 3 children being left in a car on the side of a road after their mother told them to wait there only for her never to return. And seeing how they dealt with the aftermath of that trauma played out so well – with the eldest boy Jack taking on the responsible role, even more so after their father left 2 years later having never got to grips with the murder of his wife.
The role Jack takes on to help his family survive and to try and track down whoever was responsible for killing his mum made him such an important and strong character all the way through this book. I enjoyed seeing how he acted in certain situations, but then would show his vunerabilities too with his recurring nightmares about when his mum first went missing.
The whole story had an edgy and unnerving feeling throughout it and I loved the different storylines from the various characters featured. A real page turner!!
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Book 14 of my #20booksofsummer challenge…. I think! I may be losing track so need to double check haha!! I never make things simple for myself! 😉 Now to work out how best to attack the final batch of books for the challenge – stick to the Netgalley TBR bookshelf plan or deviate a little?! Not adding to the Netgalley shelves would have been the better option in the first place but I didn’t stick to that way of thinking!! ㏊㏊
How are you getting on with your challenge if you’re taking part?!
Books and Me! 
Fab review! I loved the Beautiful Dead as well and I think I have this one on Goodreads somewhere.
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Thank you! There are just TOO many books lol!! 😉
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