Carmel Harrington: The Stolen Child (May 2026)
This is a mystery story related in three timelines from different points of view. At the centre is the presumed abduction of two year old Robert from a cabin whilst on a Mediterranean cruise in 1983, with his stepfather and mother sound asleep. He had been drinking and she had taken a sleeping pill following some earlier tensions between the couple. Their baby, Lily was not harmed.
Forty years later, the stepfather, Jason, is still investigating Robert’s disappearance and, during a television interview, produced a computerised age processed image of how he probably looks aged forty-two.
Robert’s mother, Kimberly, has immersed herself in her property business and Lily has always felt overshadowed and overlooked.
The marriage broke down soon after the incident.
An American called Zack contacts Lily convinced that he is Robert. There is a resemblance and he has memories of another mother. She is sceptical at first, Jason has been conned before, but the two form a bond, which we found touching, and they set out to discover the truth.
In the other thread of the story, beginning in 1963, friends Sally and Elsie are in a London orphanage and we follow them into young adulthood when they leave the care system with little support and struggle to get by.
They are resilient and determined but early childhood traumas have taken their toll.
The two storylines converge and, after surprising twists, the mystery is resolved. There were suggestions in our group of some implausibilities and odd coincidences but strange things do occur in real life. People in desperate situations can behave rashly and become trapped.
The author writes in a deceptively simple style but she tackles deep and distressing subjects of neglect, guilty buried secrets, the pain of not knowing what has become of a missing child, the repercussions of living a lie, post natal depression, domestic abuse and coercive control.
We were divided on this book with half of us finding it such a gripping page-turner that we skimmed through it again to find the clues we missed on first reading and the clever misdirections.
3/5