The Only Child
The utterly compelling and heartbreaking novel from the bestselling author of The Botanist's Daughter
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Beschreibung des Verlags
'A taut, clever whodunit ... Kayte Nunn keeps the stakes high and the characters compelling, making for a fast, fresh, engrossing historical mystery!' KATE QUINN
1949 It is the coldest winter Orcades Island has ever known, when a pregnant sixteen-year-old arrives at Fairmile, a home for 'fallen women' run by the Catholic Church. She and her baby will disappear before the snow melts.
2013 Frankie Gray has come to the island for the summer, hoping for one last shot at reconnecting with her teenage daughter, Izzy, before starting a job as a deputy sheriff. They are staying with her mother, Diana, at The Fairmile Inn, soon to be a boutique hotel, but when an elderly nun is found dead in suspicious circumstances, and then a tiny skeleton is discovered in the grounds of the house, Frankie is desperate for answers.
At once an evocative, unsettling tale of past misdeeds and a crime thriller that will have you reading with your heart in your mouth, The Only Child is compulsively addictive storytelling from the bestselling author of The Botanist's Daughter.
Readers can't get enough of The Only Child:
'A deeply moving look at a past when women's reproductive rights were denied . . . a heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful story that resonates in today's world' SUSAN WIGGS
'Richly drawn characters, masterful storytelling, and a slowly unraveling mystery kept me on the edge of my seat, right up until the satisfying ending' KAREN McQUESTION
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This gripping mystery from Nunn (The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant) alternates between Brigid, a plucky 16-year-old who's banished by her family when her pregnancy becomes evident in 1949, and Frankie Gray, a brave but angst-ridden former police officer in 2013, who's trying to reconnect with her 15-year-old daughter, Izzy. Frankie has come to Orcades Island in Puget Sound, Wash., to help her mother renovate Fairmile, a long-abandoned mansion that once housed a Catholic home for unwed mothers. When Frankie hears of a suspicious death at the assisted living facility where her grandmother's a resident, she immediately heads there. Frankie slips past the police and catches a glimpse of the crime scene, noting the twine that binds the elderly victim, a former nun, to her bed. Back at Fairmile, workmen uncover the long-buried body of an infant. Frankie investigates, but the stakes rise when Izzy disappears. The chapters about Brigid dramatically reveal the casual cruelty she suffered during her pregnancy and her will to survive. The skillful plot matches the two distinctive leads. This reminder of the harrowing realities faced by women pre–Roe v. Wade couldn't be more timely.
