The Boy in the Photo by Nicole Trope
Genre: Psychological thriller, domestic thriller
Read: 29th June 2019
Purchase: Amazon
(release date: 28th June 2019)
★★★★★ 5 stars
OMG...WOW! What a fantabulous first read for me by Aussie author Nicole Trope! Set in Sydney and the small Hunter valley town of Heddon Greta (which, admittedly, I'd not heard of till I read this book), THE BOY IN THE PHOTO is fast paced, edge-of-your-seat and an emotional rollercoaster that was a thrill ride from beginning to end.
Megan's son Daniel is 6 years old when he is abducted from school by his father. The day was like any other but when Megan went to collect Daniel from school at the end of the day, she is horrified to discover that her abusive ex-husband Greg has taken Daniel. She calls Greg - his phone is switched off. She calls his landline - but receives the message that the number is no longer connected. Megan informs the police and she is questioned. But Daniel is never found. But Megan never gives up hope that one day he will be.
Six years later and Megan has married again and has a 6 month old baby daughter, Evie. She receives a phone call from her husband Michael, a detective, to say "They found him." Megan struggles to connect his meaning. Found who? "They've found Daniel."
After six years in hiding, Daniel walks into the police station at Heddon Greta claiming who he was, that there had been a fire and his dad was dead. With nothing but the clothes on his back and an old mobile phone in his hand. Megan and Michael jumped in their car and drove the couple of hours north of Sydney immediately. Megan could not contain her excitement or her disbelief. Daniel was coming home! But was he?
Now 12 years old, Daniel is very different from the son Megan lost. Gone is her beautiful little boy who giggled and laughed along with her. In his place, a silent, sullen and angry young adolescent. The years have hardened Daniel and made him bitter and resentful towards his mother, spurred on by the lies his father fed him. He clings to his old mobile phone as his last link to his dad and refuses to let it go, even though it has no SIM card - which was lost between the police station and the burning shack he'd shared with his father. But Megan knows her little boy is still in there somewhere and is determined to find him beneath the layers of hurt of his hardened exterior.
Megan has difficulty coping with her feelings - wanting to smother him with cuddles and love on the one hand but knowing she needs to give him space to deal with his grief and a whole new way of life as well. All she can do is smile and be gentle with him, hoping that bit by bit he will gradually come to trust them. The one thing she finds positive is his interaction with Evie. He plays with her and talks to her when he thinks she isn't looking, and Megan smiles to herself flooded with relief and hope that he can find a way to reconnect to her through his little sister. It's only when he interacts with his mother does the ghost of Greg emerge from his lips and Megan finds herself shaken that he could still have that effect on her all these years later.
Throughout the re-connection of mother and son and the days after, Megan's husband Michael - who was the original lead detective on the case into Daniel's abduction - is understanding and compassionate where most men probably would have run. He is her voice of reason and keeps her grounded when she thinks she will never get through to her son. Daniel appears indifferent to Michael one day and tolerant of him the next, an obvious conflict of his own emotions. Yet he hurls his own childish logic at Megan about being a family with his dad "if only she didn't stop loving him". The pain and confusion that Daniel feels is understandable, given the circumstances he grew up in...even if we feel like tearing our hair out in frustration alongside Megan. How any parent can alienate a child from their other parent with such hate is beyond me. This is something of which I am familiar, with my husband's own children taken by his ex-wife and then drilled into them by her and her mother how much of a this or that their father was. After 6 years (also) of this type of conditioning, the trouble we had with those children after their mother died was inexplicable. But the circumstances was a lot different than the case here in that the children were almost feral (sadly), and we were in a fight with the children's grandmother for custody - a fight we couldn't win, because she had always been in the children's lives and we had not...through no fault of their father's. They hated their father, thanks to their mother, and even today almost 20 years later, the wounds have never truly healed and the children are still strangers.
As Megan struggles to reconnect with the son she no longer recognises as her own, Daniel slowly reaches out only to snatch his hand back again. And Megan feels as if she is going one step forward and two steps back. There are times she gets a glimpse of the little boy she knew but mostly he is a stranger. And if it weren't for the DNA she would doubt he was he child, he is so different. But Megan also remembers all too well what the years of conditioning at Greg's hand could do.
It isn't long that Megan begins to suspect that Daniel has a secret. One that could destroy their family and put them in terrible danger. Who started that fire that claimed Greg's life? And why did Daniel have so little marks on him, having run 10km from the burnt out shack? What terrible secret is he hiding?
Told over two timelines, THE BOY IN THE PHOTO begins in the present day with snapshots of Megan's grief and Daniel's time with his father in back to back chapters. Cleverly outlined in the gradual build-up from abduction to Daniel's return, we are privy to Megan's pain as each year goes by with no sign of her son as well as life from Daniel's perspective from the excitement at going on holiday with daddy at 6 to that excitement having worn off and now growing impatient with having to remain in hiding in later years. We see Megan's pain, the friendships she makes online with two particular parents whose children were also taken by their exes and the being able to share her feelings with those in a similar situation, knowing that they truly understand what she is going through. We see, too, Daniel's excitement when his father picks him up from school change to bewilderment and confusion regarding his mum when he learns she didn't want him anymore. On every year we get a glimpse of both Megan and Daniel's journey over those six years, entwined with the present day as Megan struggles to reconnect with Daniel.
Although I didn't foresee how it would play out at the end, I did correctly guess probably the biggest reveal leading to that ending. Still, it didn't spoil it for me. I simply suspected it and figuratively punched the air exclaiming "I knew it!" when it was revealed. Honestly? I don't think it was obvious...I just picked it up and thought "that could work"...but wouldn't be disappointed if I was wrong. I thought it was also a very clever addition.
THE BOY IN THE PHOTO is an excellent read with some really clever twists. It is an emotional journey but beautifully written. I simply couldn't put it down. I highly recommend it!!
As my first read by Nicole Trope and set in the city in which I live, it was refreshing to discover her style is of a similar calibre to some of my favourite British thriller writers - K.L. Slater, Shalini Boland, Kerry Wilkinson - and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.
I would like to thank #NicoleTrope, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheBoyInThePhoto in exchange for an honest review.
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