It's been eight years since Gen Loxley lost her daughter, Beth: eight years of grief in which nothing's really moved forward, for all that her husband, Art, wills it to. Gen, once a writer of novels, has settled in to a life of half-hearted teaching, while Art makes his name and their fortune - and pressures her into trying IVF once again. For Gen, it seems a cruel act of replacement; life without Beth is unthinkable, unbearable - but still it goes on. And then a woman arrives on Gen's doorstep, saying the very thing she longs to hear: that her daughter was not stillborn, but was spirited away as a healthy child, and is out there, waiting to be found.... So why is Art reluctant to get involved? To save his wife from further hurt? Or something much more sinister? What is the truth about Beth Loxley?

This was one of those books that while it got me hooked I can't say I particularly enjoyed it. I've read a few books where a child has disappeared or was thought dead only to reappear in the parents life but this took a different tack to those. In this case, Gen's daughter Beth was still born. Eight years on, a stranger knocks at Gen's door to announce to Gen that in fact Beth was not stillborn. Is she still alive? If so, where is she? Needless to say the quest to find her daughter takes Gen on a path where it would seem even her nearest & dearest cannot be trusted to be telling her the truth. That in itself was enough to keep me reading as I had to know if Gen's husband was involved & if so why would he do something so cruel.

There are one or two surprises along the way but with about a third of the book to go I was wearying of Gen & the people in her life, plus I found a few events rather dubious, causing the story to lose credibility for me. Consequently, I found myself skim reading much of the latter part.

That said, for someone who is very picky about how books can conclude, I have to say things culminated in a final chapter/epilogue that I found very satisfactory!

Swapped at the LFL in Sparrow Park




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