NetGalley Top Reviewer

NetGalley Top Reviewer
NetGalley Top Reviewer

Saturday, May 12, 2018

The Child Next Door by Shalini Boland

Magnolia Close. Wimborne. Dorset. The Rawlings live at number four -- Dominic, Kirstie and their 6-month-old baby, Daisy. It's a lovely and quiet neighborhood. But who knows what goes on behind those closed doors?

The drama begins when Kirstie wakes from a nap to hear a man's voice on her baby monitor -- "Quick, let's just take the baby now and go." When she rushes to Daisy's room upstairs, Kirstie finds her daughter safe in her cot, sleeping peacefully. There's no one in the house. No one there trying to steal away with her baby. After the police have come, interviewed the neighbors and found no babies in any other house, and gone -- that's when things start to fall apart for this little family. As Kirstie's concern for Daisy's safety escalates to paranoia, as Dom begins to wonder if she's not having some sort of breakdown, and as her friends become wary, Kirstie is no longer the same doting new mother and wife. What is going on in this neighborhood?

This was a quick read and a page turner as I definitely wanted to get to the conclusion and find out all the answers. I found myself thinking Kirstie was a total nutjob on one hand and feeling sorry for her on the next. I thought I knew where it all was going -- but I didn't! NO SPOILERS. The characters were quite an odd assortment with behaviors that threw up red herrings left and right and that kept the narrative interesting and me guessing. An entertaining standalone psychological thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the e-book ARC to read and review.

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