From the award-winning author of The Absence of Mercy, comes a gripping and darkly psychological novel about family, suspicion, and the price we are willing to pay to protect those we love the most.It’s the summer of 1954, and the residents of Cottonwood, California, are dying. At the center of it all is six-year-old Danny McCray, a strange and silent child the townspeople regard with fear and … townspeople regard with fear and superstition, and who appears to bring illness and ruin to those around him. Even his own mother is plagued by a disease that is slowly consuming her.
Sheriff Jim Kent, increasingly aware of the whispers and rumors surrounding the boy, has watched the people of his town suffer—and he worries someone might take drastic action to protect their loved ones. Then a stranger arrives, and Danny and his ten-year-old brother, Sean, go missing. In the search that follows, everyone is a suspect, and the consequences of finding the two brothers may be worse than not finding them at all.
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“The Quiet Child” by John Burley is a book filled with non-stop suspense, mystery, suspicion, and surprises. It is difficult to write a review without spoilers because every event is tied to another. In the summer of 1954, the residents of the small town of Cottonwood in California are shaken by the blatant daylight kidnapping of two children; the family car was stolen with Danny and Sean McCray inside. The search for the boys is complicated because the younger boy, Danny, is a “quiet child” and does not speak.
A dark cloud hangs over the residents of Cottonwood as they struggle with a multitude of concerns, the kidnapping of course, but also the economy, the quality of life in the small town, and the health and well-being of friends and family. Things are much more complicated than they seem on the surface, and that ambiguity is the gripping part of the story.
Burley has constructed a story so compelling and so full of twists, turns, and startling revelations that it is difficult to describe more of the plot without giving away critical details. Just be advised that each page contains a tiny kink, a compelling question, or an unanticipated turn. The plot is unpredictable and compelling, and every action has a dark side and an unexpected consequence. Burke drops the details slowly, bit by bit, throughout the narrative. Just when things seem to be coming together, here comes another complication. No one is truthful, and not everything is as it appears.
“The Quiet Child” is as compelling as it is deceptive; nothing is as it seems. Tension, anticipation, and suspense drag readers into the story. I could not put it down; I was stunned on every page. And yes, it ends with a HUGE bombshell.
Prose is tortured
Great story premise with lots of twists, a little spooky, a little scary, and a good read.
Okay. I wasn’t sure i would like this book. I had previously read John Burley’s The Forgetting Place and i didn’t love it. So, with some hesitation, I dove head first into this little gem in the rough. And man am I glad I did!
I enjoyed the change in perspective between the characters. I’m a fan of that kind of writing style. Michael had me from the beginning. I loved and loathed him. I hate to say that I learned to love him all over again at the end. It made me loath myself and all myself if I had the balls to do what he did. He did the most extreme thing any parent can possibly do. He tested his family in more ways than any one person should be willing to do. All to protect that family. Full circle insanity. And he lived up to that definition! Would a person risk what Michael did to break the superstition surrounding his family? Would they have the audacity to be this extreme in protecting what was there’s? What, as the reader, would you do?
You end up feeling sympathy for this family. I was happy with the fore of the story and how each character developed with the story’s progression. I couldn’t put it down. I was obsessed with knowing what happened. And i was left with wanting more. This is a must-read for anyone who loves a good not quite happy ending.