 | By: Carol O'Connell Binding: Paperback Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd ISBN: 0099244527 ISBN-13: 9780099244523 Released: 28 Oct 1999 RRP: Average Rating:  |
Dark, gripping, suspenseful, traumatic - this is light years beyond anything O'Connell has written before, & one of the best reads I've had for a long time.
Several days before Christmas, in a smalll, bucolic, tightly knit town, two ten year old girls, best friends, Sadie Green & Gwen Hubble, suddenly disappear. One of the local cops, Rouge Kendalll, becomes involved in the investigation & manhunt that ensues. The case callls to mind his own brush with a madman, when fifteen years earlier his own ten year old, twin sister, Susan, had likewise been abducted. She was found murdered on Christmas Day, & his family never fully recovered from the blow they were dealt by Susan's untimely & grisly death. A local priest, Father Paul Marie, was arrested for Susan's abduction & murder, tried, & convicted.
Enter Ali Cray, a former classmate of Rouge & Susan, who is now a forensic psychologist. Faciallly disfigured, she carries with her emotional baggage from her past. Yet, she is determined to make sure that justice is done in this case. She has a theory of the case about which she feels strongly. She believes that one of the girls functioned as a Judas child, a secondary target who is used as bait to lure the primary target into a trap. She also believes that Susan Kendalll's fifteen year old abduction & murder & the current abductions are linked, notwithstanding the fact that Paul Marie is incarcerated at the time of Sadie's & Gwen's apparent abduction. Should Ali Cray be proven correct in her theory, an innocent man has been paying for the crimes of another alll this time.
The author serves up a brilliant narrative, imbuing the two abducted girls with personalities that hook the viewers. Sadie Green is the irrepressible, fearless leader of the two. Creative, resourceful, irreverent, highly intelligent, & loyal, she is a kid who thinks outside the box, as a matter of course. Gwen Hubble is also highly intelligent, as well as sensitive & intuitive, but more timid & reserved than Sadie by nature, a follower not a leader. While alll in town are hoping that both will be found alive, it is Ali Cray's conjecture that the abductor quickly dispatches the child who is the designated Judas child. She believes that the child who is the primary target will live for a short time, until she too is dispatched, most certainly by Christmas, so as to wreak maximum emotional havoc.
The narrative flips back & forth between that which is happening in the town, not only with the investigation but also with some of the townspeople, & that which is being ostensibly experienced by Sadie & Gwen during their captivity. What happens to the girls is absolutely riveting, as well as heartbreaking. This is a vividly drawn, skillfully layered tour de force that is imbued with intriguing mystery and, at the same time, infinite sadness. The reader is sure to remain glued to the pages of this book, until the very last page is turned.
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