Stranger Child by Rachel Abbott

Rachel Abbott is growing with each book and she certainly knows how to combine psychological tension with taboos, the dysfunctional with the depraved and still manage to keep the story realistic.

The story focuses on the disappearance of a young child and her unexplained reappearance many years later. One day she is just suddenly stood at the door, as if she had never been missing at all.

At that moment Natasha is the intruder, a threat to Emma and her small family. Emma knows instinctively that something isn't quite right, and she reacts like any mother would when she perceives a threat to her child.

The young girl is sullen, silent and there seems to be underlying aggression, especially towards the very people she should be glad to see.That in itself isn't unusual and it is common for 'returned' children to feel displaced, to feel anger and to feel out-of-place.

Emma has a gut feeling about Natasha, which her husband isn't interested in, and she quite frankly should have listed to her inner voice. Instead she trusts his good judgement and in doing so puts her baby in danger.

From the very beginning there was one person who didn't react the way they should have. It raised my suspicions and made for a much more sinister plot. The fact that this person could be at the bottom of everything puts a completely new slant on the whole story.

I really liked the way Abbott wasn't afraid to end the book the way she did. The circle doesn't have to be completed, not every thread needs to be tied off and not every story needs a predictably happy ending.

I received a copy of this book courtesy of the author.

Buy Stranger Child at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Read And So It Begins, Read Kill Me Again, Read The Back Road, Read Nowhere Child,  Read Sleep Tight, Read Come a Little Closer, all by Rachel Abbott.