Review ~ The Stolen Child by Sanjida Kay

Corvus
April 2017

What's it all about...

Zoe and Ollie Morley tried for years to have a baby and couldn't. They turned to adoption and their dreams came true when they were approved to adopt a little girl from birth. They named her Evie.Seven years later, the family has moved to Yorkshire and grown in number: a wonderful surprise in the form of baby Ben. As a working mum it's not easy for Zoe, but life is good.

But then Evie begins to receive letters and gifts.The sender claims to be her birth father.He has been looking for his daughter.And now he is coming to take her back...

What did I think about it...

The Stolen Child is a fascinating psychological suspense story which looks at the emotional wreckage of a family torn apart by suspicion and danger.

Zoe and Ollie Morley live with their adopted daughter, Evie and small son Ben, in Ilkley, a pretty town set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire moors. Zoe tries to balance the responsibilities of motherhood with her passion for painting and uses the drama of the wild and windswept landscape of the moors as the inspiration for her work. Life should be idyllic for the Morley family; however, there are profound undercurrents of discontent bubbling away beneath the surface. Ollie seems to be working far too many long hours leaving Zoe to cope with the children and her burgeoning artistic career.

When Zoe discovers that someone, claiming to be Evie’s birth father, is leaving hidden messages for her little girl everything suddenly changes. What then follows is a tight and tense psychological suspense story which, very quickly, gets right into the fragile heart of a family going through a really difficult time. Zoe’s fear and uncertainty is beautifully expressed, as is the mercurial nature of seven year old Evie, for whom life is challenging. The convoluted plot holds the imagination really well and there is a palpable feeling of panic and alarm when the true nature of the story starts to be revealed in dramatic detail.

This fascinating psychological suspense story kept me guessing right until the end.

Best Read With...Scones and tea

About the Author

Sanjida Kay is a writer and broadcaster. Her second thriller, 'The Stolen Child', is now published in April. She lives in Bristol with her husband and her daughter.

Follow on Twitter @sanjidakay

My thanks to the team at Lovereading.co.uk for the opportunity to read this as part of the 

Lovereading Review Panel.

More reviews of The Stolen Child can be found on the Lovereading website by clicking here.

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