Laura Elliot

This book wasn’t as I expected it to be. Given the title, I expected a detective hunt for a missing child, kidnap and perhaps murder. Instead it is a character study of two women encompassing grief, guilt, blame, anger, loss and redemption. Susanna loses her own baby before term and steals one to replace it. Carla, a model who lives her life on the fashion pages, gives birth but days later her baby disappears from the hospital without trace. This is a page-turner but is so much more than show more that. It is a character study of two women at the extreme of horror and grief, not just in the immediate aftermath of the theft, but years later. Both experience loss, grief, guilt and dashed hopes.
Susanne steals baby Isobel and calls her Joy. Devastated mum Carla is dealing with an avid media which cannot believe its luck at the juicy headlines. Both women struggle to live day-to-day. Relationships crack, friendships shake. Susanne is over-protective of Joy. Carla refuses to let go, even after her husband leaves the country to ‘move on’. She changes her name, cuts her hair short and dyes it black. The years pass. But rural Ireland is a small place. The network of who-knows-who overlaps the lives of both women, now and in the past. Why did Susanne choose Carla’s baby to steal? Part of my motivation to turn the page was the curiosity about who would spot the strong physical likeness between Joy and Carla. As Joy/Isobel grows, her voice joins the story too: teenage angst, boyfriend trouble, rebellion and confusion.
Susanne and Carla are connected by an umbilical cord. I waited for the moment that the cord would be yanked, and the two pulled together. This book is an examination of what makes a family: blood, proximity, do they have to start with a birth or are they more loosely assembled?
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Laura Elliot has woven a tightly braided story. The strands of the braid are so tightly woven that it seems as if the truth will never come to light. The unraveling starts with a swallow fluttering its wings in an attic and the constant question remains “How long is a piece of string?” Sound cryptic? The unraveling and question continue throughout the story strand by strand until the braid starts to come undone and then is redone, tightened, only to become tangled and very messy.

The show more tension never lifts, each section brings another gasp of rage, fear and torment. Powerful, emotional writing with characters perfectly drawn, situations so clearly described that you feel the raw emotion being described. Many important topics are found and explored in this book and the author doesn’t make excuses or shy away from exposing the devastating consequences of bullying, shaming, cultism and those with power who prey on the weak. This is all incorporated smoothly within the storyline allowing the reader to sift through the emotions that are provoked.

This book captured my undivided attention and I finished it in a day. Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for an advance copy. show less

When I first began Stolen Child, I thought I was going to be reading a Psychological Thriller about a stolen baby and the hunt to find her kidnapper. This book was less a “thriller” and more of a psychological character study of two very different women, their families, and the tragedy that shaped all of their lives. I absolutely loved this book and found it utterly fascinating. As a mother, some parts were really hard for me to read; I kept placing myself in Carla’s shoes, wondering show more how I would have dealt with the kidnapping of my child. My emotions were running so high at the beginning of this book that a few times I actually slammed my kindle down and yelled (to no one in particular), “Enough! I can’t read this anymore!” Of course, a few minutes later I was stealthily sneaking back towards said kindle - I just had to find out what happened next! I love books that can invoke this type of emotion from me and I can honestly say it doesn’t happen very often!

Stolen Child begins from the viewpoint of Susanne and we quickly learn that her body has failed and betrayed her yet again, she’s just miscarried her fifth baby. I instantly felt for her and connected deeply with her heartache and despair. Laura Elliot, the author, was brilliant in starting the story this way; allowing the reader to both sympathize with and despise Susanne as she plots out her evil plan. Carla on the other hand is initially portrayed as having it all; she’s beautiful, has a loving husband, an easy pregnancy, and is becoming more famous every day. This celebrity like status puts Carla on the outskirts of the “everyday” mom and I actually didn’t connect with her character right away.

Of course, this all changes as the story progresses. Carla’s devastating loss and never-ending determination to find her daughter Isobel made me fall absolutely in love with her! Even when everyone else gives up and believes her daughter is dead she pushes on; starting her own investigation and ultimately choosing to continue in her search rather than saving her marriage. Susanne on the other hand becomes cold and distant as her paranoia of being “found out” eats away at her. At times she even becomes physically and emotionally abusive with not just her daughter Joy, but also her husband and this ultimately destroys their marriage.

I love how Laura Elliot developed Carla and Susanne’s characters; they both took massive U-turns and I was pleasantly surprised. It was this character development that really kept me reading! I also thought the character of Joy/Isobel was wonderful and Elliot captured the emotions of a teenager whose life has been torn to shreds perfectly. Throughout the story we’re introduced to several secondary characters whose relevance is not initially clear. Slowly, these characters and their storylines become intertwined with the main plotline in the most unexpected ways. The author does a fantastic job pulling these interweaving plotlines together and giving the story a very plausible ending that left me thoroughly satisfied!

The Stolen Child would make an excellent choice for any book club and there are reading group questions provided at the back of the book. I will definitely be recommending this to my book club for our May reading selection. Highly recommend and anxiously waiting to read Laura Elliot’s next book!

**I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher, Bookouture and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review** show less

Not Their Daughter by Laura Elliot is a highly recommended domestic suspense novel following a woman's search for the truth about her family.

Gabrielle (Gaby) Grace lives in NYC is an AM shock jock for NY Eyz with a call-in show called "Gaby's Good Morning Wake-up." She returned home to Trabawn, Ireland, just sixteen hours before her father's death from cancer. At his death bed the last words Gaby's father Dominick said to her was "I stole you."

When Gaby asks her mother, Cassie, why she show more delayed informing her about her father's health until the end and what his last words were, she became angry and then deflected the inquiry. Gaby has had a contentious relationship with her mother, Cassie, for years and left home as quickly as possible when she turned eighteen. Her younger twin sisters, Jessica and Susanne, love her, but are so different from her and know nothing about the comment made. At the wake she reconnects with a long time friend, Killian Osmond, who came to support her. Cassie is an alcoholic and after drinking heavily that night, yells at Dominick for leaving her to clean up his mess. What mess, Gaby wonders.

Later, Gaby finds a newspaper clipping that she believes is a photo of her father, who has traditionally tried to stay out of all photos. She asks Killian about it as he works for the Bayview Dispatch paper. The man's name is Cormac Gallagher, a detective, and he is next to prominent politician Aloysius Russell. While researching these names, Gaby comes across the story of a baby girl, Isabelle, who was stolen from her crib as a newborn infant twenty-nine years ago. Could Gaby be the baby?

All of this and much more happens early on in the novel, grabbing your attention and increasing the desire to keep reading as Gaby tries to untangle the mounting number of secrets and get answers to her questions. There are plenty of twists along the way and the search becomes even more convoluted as answers don't come quickly and even more questions arise. Readers will have to set disbelief aside several times, but interest in reaching the final denouement will make that easy.

Gaby is a fully realized, sympathetic character and you will want her to find closure and move on with her life. There is a whole lot of drama that needs to take place before she even comes close to some semblance of the truth. The action unfolds like a soap opera, with twists and new information that keep the pages turning and the melodrama going until the final twist. Thanks to Bookouture for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
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