Title: The Nowhere Child by Christian White
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery
Length: 384 pages
Book Rating: B+
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley
Summary:
Winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, The Nowhere Child is screenwriter Christian White’s internationally bestselling debut thriller of psychological suspense about a woman uncovering devastating secrets about her family—and her very identity…
Kimberly Leamy is a photography teacher in Melbourne, Australia. Twenty-six years earlier, Sammy Went, a two-year old girl vanished from her home in Manson, Kentucky. An American accountant who contacts Kim is convinced she was that child, kidnapped just after her birthday. She cannot believe the woman who raised her, a loving social worker who died of cancer four years ago, crossed international lines to steal a toddler.
On April 3rd, 1990, Jack and Molly Went’s daughter Sammy disappeared from the inside their Kentucky home. Already estranged since the girl’s birth, the couple drifted further apart as time passed. Jack did his best to raise and protect his other daughter and son while Molly found solace in her faith. The Church of the Light Within, a Pentecostal fundamentalist group who handle poisonous snakes as part of their worship, provided that faith. Without Sammy, the Wents eventually fell apart.
Now, with proof that she and Sammy are in fact the same person, Kim travels to America to reunite with a family she never knew she had. And to solve the mystery of her abduction—a mystery that will take her deep into the dark heart of religious fanaticism where she must fight for her life against those determined to save her soul…
Review:
The Nowhere Child by Christian White is an enthralling mystery that is quite clever and unique.
Thirty year old Kimberly “Kim” Leamy lives in Melbourne, AU and teaches photography. Her world is turned upside down after she is approached by an American stranger who tells her she might actually be Sammy Went, who was kidnapped in Kentucky twenty-six years earlier. After receiving information that confirms her identity, Kim travels to the United States to try to piece together the events that ripped her from her family in Kentucky. But the biggest mystery she is hoping to solve is how she ended up living in Australia.
Unable to get answers from her stepfather, Dean, Kim hopes that confronting her past in Manson, KY will untangle the truth about her life. Her reception by her birth family is not quite what she expects. Her brother Stuart has never given up hope his sister would be found. Her sister Emma tried to move forward by admitting Sammy is most likely dead. Their mother Molly clings to her faith although the fundamentalist church that is the cornerstone of her religion is no longer the powerhouse it once was. Kim’s father, Jack, left town years ago and she is uncertain whether she will meet him. While Kim is not necessarily finding irrefutable proof of how ended up Australia, she does uncover a clue that raises more questions than answers.
Interspersed with the events unfolding in the present are chapters that detail the day of Sammy’s kidnapping and the ensuing search for her. The Went family is somewhat fractured with Molly sometimes losing patience with her young daughter. She is deeply religious and clings tightly to the church that Jack has long since abandoned. After Sammy’s disappearance, Emma is forced to grow up too soon as she discovers shocking truths about her family. Stuart does not handle the kidnapping well and he reverts to a happier time in his young life. Jack’s world begins spinning out his control as he frantically searches for his daughter just as his life begins to implode.
With chapters alternating between Kim’s search for answers in the present and the days after her kidnapping in the past, The Nowhere Child is a fast-paced and spellbinding mystery. The characters are interesting and well-developed but not all of them are easy to relate to or like. The plot is well-developed with just enough suspense to keep the pages turning at a blistering pace. With stunning twists and unexpected turns, Christian White brings the novel to a jaw-dropping conclusion. An absolutely brilliant debut that I found impossible to put down and highly recommend to fans of the genre.
