Not My Boy
Fiction
Sourcebooks Landmark
January 5, 2021
Paperback
272
Free from publisher
Who will you cross to protect your own? When Hannah packs up her past and moves to the cottage next-door to her sister, she hopes the luxe neighborhood and close family ties will be the perfect escape for her son and the shadows that trail them. But when a young girl goes missing days after they unload their final boxes and her son is quickly thrown under suspicion, Hannah must do whatever it takes to protect her child. Even if that means pointing the blame her sister's way instead. With investigators swarming and neighborhood scrutiny closing in, the divide between two sisters grows. As one fiercely defends her husband, the other shields her boy from the crime, keeping quiet the secrets that might unravel it all. And all the while, one young girl has vanished, and someone is to blame.
My review:
This is one of those books that make you think what you would do if put in the protagonists place? Told in alternating voices between Hannah and her mother Eva, this is an intense family drama. When a six year old neighbor goes missing, all eyes turn to the people in the neighborhood, among them newcomer Hannah and her son. Hannah has moved home to be close to her family, moving in next door to her sister (and her husband and daughter), and with her mother being close by. You know from the beginning that there is a secret surrounding the boy, but is it something that would cause him to kidnap a child he has been seen with? There was also the interesting position the mother was placed in. Both her daughters were shielding family members, but how could she not take sides? Lots of questions in this one, and I enjoyed thinking of what I would do differently than the characters. I was a bit let down by the ending. I thought it came about rather suddenly, and kind of out of the blue. I did enjoy the mystery of figuring things out as clues surfaced.
A family drama involving a crime that no one wants to be blamed for, this one is one that will make you think about the choices we would make if the situation happened to us?
I’m intrigued by this premise, thanks for sharing your thoughts