The Kidnapper's Word by E.J. Wood
Genre: Psychological thriller, Suspense
Read: 11th December 2021
Amazon
Published: 10th November 2021
★★★ 3 stars
DESCRIPTION:
AN ABDUCTED CHILD. AN INNOCENT DINNER PARTY.
When nine year old Emily disappears, Detective Chief Inspector Clarence Landon knows time isn’t on his side.
It's the 1960s. Child abductions are rare.
Her mother, Ava blames herself. What mother would leave their child alone?
Behind twitching curtains, an unsettling truth of what happened is revealed. A story of family secrets and a chilling tale of deception is unravelled.
What would you be capable of when pushed to your limits?
MY REVIEW:
It was reading the premise for this book that initially drew me in. I'm a sucker for child abduction stories...but this one was something different and not your usual missing child trope. THE KIDNAPPER'S WORD is my first read by this author, one I am not familiar with, but I was intrigued just the same...despite my ever growing TBR list.
Ava reluctantly attends a dinner party next door with her new neighbours, the Hendersons. She didn't really want to be here as her boyfriend, DCI Clarence Landon, was working the late shift and couldn't attend with her. So Ava went on her own leaving her 9 year old daughter in bed upstairs. Why would you leave a child in the house alone, one might say? But one must remember that this was the 1960s and times were different then. Ava must have believed Emily to be safe upstairs in her bed, asleep.
The dinner party was incredibly arduous with host Wallace Henderson not even hiding the fact he was ogling her breasts while his dim-witted wife Claudia giggled with John and Jane at the other end of the table. The phone rings, Wallace answers it, and returns moments later to continue his perusal of Ava's cleavage.
By 9pm, Ava had had enough. She was going home. And bidding her neighbours goodnight, she walked the 25 metres to her own front door...which, to her horror, she discovered was ajar. She ran screaming into the house and upstairs to Emily's room. She was gone. Emily was missing. Someone had taken her.
While Ava sat in a tearful mess, the police were called and Clarence arrived to console his girlfriend. Instinct told him to act; to investigate; to ask questions and find Emily. But he was too close and would compromise the investigation. To his surprise, his former colleague DI Tenley Burke arrived to take over as SIO as she co-ordinated the search and ran the investigation into the disappearance of little Emily.
What begins as a missing little girl turns into a Pandora's box revealing secrets and lies that have been locked away for a long time as deception and betrayal slowly surfaces. When the reveal comes, it is shocking as it is disturbing and I thought for a moment..."what am I reading here?" It certainly gave the story a twist that blindsided the reader...even me, a seasoned veteran able to spot a twist from a mile away...lol
The plot was different, written in a matter of fact style, almost like a newspaper article. I felt the scenes jump about a bit from one sentence to the next a little too quickly...again, like you would read in a news report. But then again, you weren't bogged down with unnecessary descriptions either, making THE KIDNAPPER'S WORD a quick read at just 201 pages. And as such, I read it in just over 3 hours.
The characters are all a little strange. I couldn't warm to Landon but that could be a generational thing being set in the 60s and a different type of policeman we'd be used to today. Ava is also a strange one. She's a victim but is she believable? Landon senses something is amiss with her story but can't quite put his finger on it...but then again, maybe he is just too close to the investigation to see thing objectively. After all, he considers Emily as his daughter despite not having fathered her. And Burke could be a bit of a bitch with all the sensitivity of a sledgehammer...and she still has the hots for Landon.
Loved the Epilogue with the closing lines which, ironically, was the title of the previous book I read pretty much indicating much the same thing. It was unexpected and quite clever to end on such a twisted yet satisfactory note. I also loved the short snappy chapters, which are a favourite of mine.
Not a bad read, though I'm not sure it would entice me to read any others, THE KIDNAPPER'S WORD is a taut psychological thriller set in the 1960s that is fairly fast paced and a quick read that manages to pack a punch. If you like your psychological thrillers dark and a little disturbing, then THE KIDNAPPER'S WORD might be for you.
I would like to thank #EJWood, #QuestionMarkPress and #ZoolooTours for an ARC of #TheKidnappersWord in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
E.J. Wood is a thriller writer from England. She likes to write about dark twisted people who do dark twisted things.
Although British born, she now resides in Spain, speaks English and Spanish, and is currently learning German.
“Be courageous and try to write in a way that scares you a little.”
“I don’t live in darkness. Darkness lives in me.”
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