Review: The Quiet Child by John Burley

Title: The Quiet Child by John Burley
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: Historical, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 304 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

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 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.

Review:

Set in the small town of Cottonwood, CA in 1954, The Quiet Child by John Burley  is a suspenseful mystery about the search for two kidnapped children.

How can an entire town blame a mute six year old boy for the ill health and death that have plagued them in recent years? Apparently quite easily in the absence of any other logical explanation. So when young Danny McCray and his ten year old brother Sean are kidnapped, does anyone outside of their parents, Michael and Kate, want them found? Thankfully part time Sheriff Jim Dent is not about to let fear and suspicion prevent him from doing everything he can to track down the kidnapper and rescue the boys before it is too late.

From the very second a stranger drives off in the McCray family car with Danny and Sean, there is an intense sense of urgency to locate the boys before something dire happens to them. Sheriff Dent is committed to finding the boys and he is completely honest with Detectives John Pierce and Tony DeLuca about the town’s opinion about Danny right from the very start. However, like Dent, both Pierce and DeLuca do not allow rumor and speculate interfere with the investigation and all three are committed to solving the crime. They are making very little progress in the days after the kidnapping but will Dent’s realization that Michael has gone looking for his sons change the course of the investigation? This discovery is the break they have been waiting for but can Dent, DeLuca and Pierce locate Michael in time to rescue him, Danny and Sean from a possibly dangerous situation?

While The Quiet Child is mainly a mystery, there is also a bit of a supernatural element to the storyline due to the speculation that Danny is somehow responsible for the town’s ill health and bad luck. The story weaves back and forth between the boys’ experiences at the kidnapper’s hands and the increasingly desperate manhunt and massive police search to locate them.  With no discernible motive for the kidnapping, plenty of action and some absolutely jaw-dropping plot twists, the novel is incredibly fast-paced with a compelling storyline. John Burley brings the novel to an astounding, twist-filled conclusion that will stun readers.