The Child Who
A Novel
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
An unimaginable crime and the man who must defend it-a probing psychological thriller from the author of A Thousand Cuts.
A chance phone call throws the biggest muder case in southern England into the hands of provincial attorney Leo Curtice. Twelve-year- old Daniel Blake stands accused of murdering an eleven-year-old girl. But who is truly responsible when one child kills another? As Curtice sets out to defend the indefensible, he soon finds himself pitted against an enraged community calling for blood. When the buildup of pressure takes a sinister turn, he fears for his wife and young daughter's safety. Must he choose between his family and the life of a damaged child? With piercing psychological insight, Lelic examines a community's response to a hideous crime.
Longlisted for the Crime Writers' Assocaition's Gold Dagger award fro Best Novel of the Year and the Steel Dagger for Best Thriller.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British author Lelic follows his acclaimed debut, A Thousand Cuts, with an equally gripping psychological thriller also inspired by a horrific real-life crime. All England is appalled by the vicious sex murder of 11-year-old Felicity Forbes, who was violated with a stick before she was drowned. The herculean task of defending Felicity's killer, 12-year-old Daniel Blake, falls to attorney Leo Curtice, who, unsurprisingly, finds few who support his role in representing the boy. Curtice's wife naturally associates the dead girl with their 15-year-old daughter, whose classmates harass her at school because of the murder case. Not even the defendant's mother and stepfather are fully in Curtice's corner. Virtually alone, Curtice struggles to get the best possible result for a killer whose capacity to understand his evil is unclear. Lelic dares to make his lead less than an Atticus Finch (Curtice views the case as a career booster), and the plot unfolds in a way few readers will anticipate.
