My Little Brother by Diane Saxon
Genre: Domestic thriller, Psychological thriller, Suspense
Read: 12th July 2022
Published: 11th July 2022
★★★★ 3.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
Two siblings, both missing for 20 years turn up within one day of each other. One dead. One alive.
It was an ordinary school day, the day I lost my little brother.
One moment he was on the roundabout and then was gone. Gone. Missing.
They all blamed me. I was in charge. Even though I was only ten years old.
They sent me away. The hurt, the shame, the questions. The not knowing.
I tried to move on.
It’s been nineteen years in exile and now somebody wants me back.
Someone with a dark secret. They hold the keys, they know the truth.
So, I need to return to the Welsh village of my childhood to find out who, because I have a secret, too…
I did something bad.
Diane Saxon’s standalone thriller is sure to plunge you into the dark world of secrets and lies.
MY THOUGHTS:
“Dewch adref. Mae’n amser i chi wybod y gwir. - Come home. It’s time you learned the truth.”
I read and loved Diane Saxon's "The Ex", despite it being part of a series it sufficed well as a standalone, so I was excited to delve into the mystery of MY LITTLE BROTHER. A missing child, a family torn apart, secrets and mysteries abound. Although I didn't find it quite as enthralling as "The Ex", it was still a decent enough read to keep me interested throughout though I did feel it dipped in the middle.
The story opens with a prologue taking place twenty years previously when ten year old Caryn was left to look after her six year old special needs brother Lloyd. It's a lot of responsibility to place on a ten year old but Caryn loves her little brother, even if he is a little demanding at times and throws the odd meltdown. She has learnt to read him well enough to gauge how to best avoid one and avert a crisis. But today Caryn just wanted to be herself and sit a while with her best friend Dylan. But it was her mam's 50th birthday today and she needed to keep Lloyd occupied until they could return home for the surprise cake her dad had ordered. Then when the time came for Dylan to head home, Caryn walked with him to bid him goodbye. Lloyd was still on the circling roundabout counting his fingers over and over. She wouldn't be a minute. But when she returned...the roundabout was empty...and Lloyd was gone.
Twenty years later, Caryn is a doctor in a busy London practice. Her life has moved on from that fateful day when her little brother disappeared and was never seen again. Her parents blamed her for "losing him" when she was supposed to be watching him and sent her away to live with the paternal grandmother she had never met. She never saw or spoke to her parents again. Years of therapy have helped her move on and box up the memories of her brother's disappearance and the events surrounding it. And she has not thought of it, or anyone else from the Welsh village that was once her home, again.
But in the last few weeks, Caryn has been receiving notes typed in Welsh, a language she has not read nor spoken for two decades. But with a little help from Google, she has translated them and their inference is clear. Someone knows what she did. Someone knows what happened the day Lloyd disappeared. Someone knows what happened to Lloyd. And now they are calling her back to where it began...and ended.
Unable to move on without knowing the truth, Caryn takes a sabbatical and makes the long and unfamiliar journey to the place where she grew up until the age of ten. If she thought people would welcome her with open arms, then she is sadly mistaken. It seems even twenty years is not long enough for this village in North Wales to forgive...or forget. Not even her parents.
But Caryn is home to finally learn the truth about what happened to her little brother, even if the village inhabitants don't want her there. And she will stop at nothing to uncover the truth.
What happened to Lloyd? Who sent Caryn the notes and why? And who wants to stop her from uncovering the truth?
MY LITTLE BROTHER was certainly not what I expected, especially after the frenetic pace "The Ex". It is a domestic thriller set in a small Welsh village with cold whipping winds and snow on the mountain tops...and that sing-sing lilt that only the Welsh have. I love the accent I could almost hear it in the dialogue.
The story unfolds through Caryn's third person narrative, with the odd narrative in the villain's voice. While it is set in the present day, there are flashbacks cleverly inserted and played out in italics (for easy identification) that come back in the form of memories as bit by bit the pieces of the puzzle fall gradually into place for Caryn. There is a real mystery as to the identity of the villain and their motive, but the pieces finally fell into place for me just moments before the reveal came.
I enjoyed MY LITTLE BROTHER, though not as much as I thought I would, but it is still a good solid read to keep you engaged enough to know the outcome. The story is well-plotted and cleverly told, particularly the anonymity around "the watcher" which added that sense of impending doom. And I especially love the cover. That roundabout/merry-go-round was my favourite ride as a child.
My favourite part of the whole tale was the ending. It finished with the same lines uttered twenty years ago and I thought it was very fitting end.
Overall, MY LITTLE BROTHER is a suspenseful read that has a steady pace, though it dips in the middle somewhat. The writing is good and the story isn't overly complex making it a relatively enjoyable mystery thriller.
I would like to thank #DianeSaxon, #Netgalley, #BoldwoodBooks and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #MyLittleBrother in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
After working for years in a demanding job, Diane gave it up when her husband said, “Follow that dream.” She subsequently has 12 Romances published for the U.S. market.
Inspired by her long, lonely walks in atmospheric woodlands, Diane has gone over to the dark side to write British psychological crime thrillers. With a four-book deal through Boldwood Books, her first in series Find Her Alive was published October 2019 followed by Someone's There in February 2020 and What She Saw is due in September 2020.
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