Lisa Ballantyne

Lisa Ballantyne’s second novel, Everything She Forgot (published in the UK as Redemption Road), is a story of abduction, repressed memory and good intentions gone awry. In this novel the author skillfully weaves together two separate but intimately connected narrative threads. In December 2013 Margaret Holloway, a teacher in her mid-thirties and married mother of two, is involved in a disastrous multi-vehicle pile-up and is pulled from her burning car by a stranger who risks his own life show more and suffers serious injuries in order to save her. The man ends up in hospital in an induced coma, his life hanging by a thread, and Margaret, compelled by guilt and curiosity, becomes obsessed with learning as much about him as she can, with the goal of finding out why he would put himself in life-threatening danger for her sake. In 1985, 27-year-old George McLaughlin, the youngest member of the Glasgow McLaughlins, a notorious crime family with a reputation for brutality and ruthlessness, believes he has found a way to escape the business. Driving a stolen car and with a bag of cash in the trunk, he makes his way to Scotland’s north coast, to Thurso, where the love of his life, Kathleen, is living with the daughter that George fathered seven years earlier but was never able to get close to. In the naïve and short-sighted fashion that we learn is typical of him, George has devised a plan: he and Kathleen will be reunited, he will finally meet his daughter Molly, love will be rekindled, and the three of them will abscond and start a new life together in Penzance, where an empty cottage that George inherited from his deceased mother awaits. Not surprisingly, things don’t work out quite as George had hoped, and he ends up speeding away from the scene of a violent abduction with a hostile and weeping 7-year-old in the car, leaving behind several witnesses, a distraught Kathleen, and a police force mobilizing for a manhunt (and don’t forget the stolen car). The tale that Ballantyne relates from this frenzied beginning is engaging on multiple levels and crammed with enough detail and backstory to breathe life into the characters, settings and situations and endow it with more than a token degree of suspense. Back in 2013, the car accident has resurrected memories that Margaret had buried, memories that eventually lead to revelations and the solution to a mystery. However, the plot’s reliance on Margaret’s slowly returning recollections of a traumatic event from her childhood presents a problem because the reader will have figured things out long before she has. Indeed, Ballantyne has structured her novel so that its credibility rests almost exclusively on the relationship that develops between George and Molly while they’re on the road together, fleeing not just the police, but also George’s family and a tenacious self-serving reporter. It is here that Ballantyne succeeds in brilliant fashion, giving us a high-stakes chase amidst the gradually blossoming connection between two people that passes convincingly through stages of antagonism and suspicion toward a state of cautious trust, mutual affection and something approaching love. The story does have a few problems besides Margaret’s awakening memory. Readers will notice the author’s proclivity for sentimentality, particularly where Molly and George are concerned. As well, the moral world of the novel is lacking somewhat in depth, eschewing shades of gray in favour of stark black and white, where absolute good on one side stands in opposition to absolute evil on the other. Several characters depicted as unremittingly cruel and loathsome strain credibility, and readers may find some of the human-on-human cruelty depicted here gratuitous. Still, in Everything She Forgot aka Redemption Road, though maybe not up to the standard she set for herself in her stellar debut novel, The Guilty One, Lisa Ballantyne has crafted an enjoyable and diverting page turner, albeit one that comes with a few caveats. show less

Daniel Hunter is no stranger to lost causes. In fact, there was a time, not too long ago, when he himself was seen as a lost cause. His mother was a junkie, so he spent most of his childhood dependent upon the state to place him in proper care. He always felt a constant need to look after his mother, even sacrificing his own needs for her benefit.

Fast forward a few years, and Daniel is a successful solicitor working in London. His own troubled background has provided him with the unique show more ability to defend troubled youth. After the unexpected death of an eight-year-old boy, found dead in a playground, he is called to defend the eleven-year-old neighbor, Sebastian Croll, accused of murdering the other boy. Instantly, Daniel feels a connection to Sebastian. The young boy is surprisingly aware of his situation, and consistently declares his innocence. But there is something unsettling about the boy. He seems strangely fascinated with the details of the other boy's death, and displays an unusual interest in topics that most would find disturbing.

The only flaw I could find with this book was that at 445 pages it was about 100 pages too long. There was so much background on Daniel's early years that you just wanted to yell at the author to get on with it. t.it would have been nice if the trial could have had more detail and we could have had more insight into Sabastian's personality before the accused crime. But overall it was interesting and well worth the time to read. show less

Danny is a successful solicitor, but he once faced a future of incarceration and hardship until the love of his foster mom pulled him away from the proverbial brink. When Danny is asked to defend Sebastian, a ten-year-old boy accused of murdering his eight-year-old friend, he feels compelled to comply not only because of the boy's age but because of the parallels between his and Sebastian's paths. Thus the stage is set for Lisa Ballantyne's The Guilty One, equal parts psychological thriller show more and social commentary that is bound to keep people talking this spring.

There are two parts to The Guilty One, simultaneously fascinating and damning towards social services and children in danger. Told in the present day, the first story follows as Danny fights to maintain Sebastian's innocence in light of the horrid charges of which he has been accused. Sebastian's youth as well as his not-so-innocent childhood reminds Danny of his own boyhood, setting the stage for the second part of the story. This second story, of Danny's childhood anger and tendency for violence, is told as memories, brought to the forefront of Danny's memory through his ongoing interactions with Sebastian. A reader understands how the two characters, as boys, were very similar even as they came from very different socio-economic backgrounds. In both cases, the fate of each boy hinges not on the government services which were created to protect and save such children, but rather on two separate individuals who have no cause to care.

Along the same lines, the differences between legal age of adulthood in Great Britain as opposed to other countries, as well as other differences in the legal systems themselves is at once fascinating and informative. Those readers with young children near Sebastian's age will wonder how any country could consider someone as young as the age of ten to be an adult in the eyes of the Court. It is this very disconcerting thought which allows readers to view Sebastian in a much more sympathetic light than he might otherwise cause. In actuality, Sebastian raises all sorts of red flags within a reader, but it is his young age that allows a reader to ignore the doubts created by those red flags and consider him an innocent child exposed to the cruelties of the world too young.

Danny is a complex character. It does not take long for a reader to recognize the demons which drive him to defend the accused and which keep him in a state of isolation and loneliness. There is an anger underneath his calm veneer that he never quite sheds, which is frightening in its intensity and intriguing due to its ambiguous roots. His conflicted and often violent emotions towards Minnie, a women he still revers as well as reviles, only fuels the mystery behind their separation. Because of Danny's self-imposed isolation, a reader is left with equally ambiguous feelings towards him. His anger distances readers even while it creates an undercurrent of sympathy with someone who had such a rough childhood and a never-ending desire for love and acceptance. This myriad of emotions Danny engenders in the reader adds significantly to the tension of Sebastian's trial.

One would be remiss without mentioning Minnie, the true heart and soul of the story and Danny's literal savior. She is a woman only a few people are lucky to meet, and her love for Danny is profound. Her own painful secrets are tragic, but it is her willingness to put Danny before her pain and suffering, as well as her courage in light of Danny's violent outbursts, that endears her to readers. One cannot help but condemn Danny ever so slightly for distancing himself from her so fully after everything she did for him, and his current suffering caused by his own regrets seem completely justified. Minnie's scenes will quickly become a reader's favorite, as she is the type of character which is larger than the two dimensions to which she is trapped.

The Guilty One is a taut mystery, not only about Sebastian's role in the crime, but also about the situation that would have driven Danny from the safety and love of Minnie's care. Danny has a depth of character to him that adds to the suspense of the story and helps bridge the gulf that Sebastian may create within the reader. The story itself drags only slightly, as readers may become impatient with the sheer number of flashbacks and interruptions from either story. Also, a reader may take issue with Danny's extreme reaction to Minnie's "crime" once it becomes known. Still, there are some fascinating points for discussion regarding innocence, western criminal systems and social services that will make this book a great read for book clubs and anyone interested in psychological dramas. The ending is particularly chilling, even if it is slightly predictable, and the entire story remains engaging in spite of its minor flaws. show less

The Guilty One is an unconventional crime novel that takes its inspiration from the chilling modern phenomenon of violent crimes committed by children against other children. Daniel Hunter is a successful London lawyer in mid-career with a reputation for working with young offenders. When he is approached to take on the case of 11-year-old Sebastian Croll, he does not hesitate to accept. Sebastian is accused of the chaotic and bloody murder of 8-year-old Ben Stokes, whose body was discovered show more in a playground. Because he grew up in an unstable household—with an unreliable, drug-addicted mother whose boyfriends often beat him—and subsequently committed a variety of offences himself, Daniel is sensitive to Sebastian’s plight. Daniel knows he was lucky, even though he was removed from his home and placed in foster care. Daniel’s anger and often violent behaviour marked him as a hard case, and as a last resort he ended up with Minnie Flynn, an older woman living on a run-down farm in Brampton. Having grown up in the city of Newcastle, Daniel initially found Minnie’s hand to mouth existence and simple ways foolish and odd. Distrustful of all adults, he lashed out and repeatedly ran away, in search of his mother. However, Minnie was patient with him and refused to be intimidated. She let Daniel know that she understood his fear but that she also had expectations. Eventually, Daniel accepted his new situation and settled into life on the farm, even agreeing to let Minnie formally adopt him. Flash forward 25 or so years. Daniel knows what it is like to be small, helpless, and forced into a place where he doesn’t feel he belongs. He knows what it’s like to be so angry that hurting other people seems to make sense. His heart goes out to Sebastian Croll, but does empathy cloud his judgment? The case against Sebastian moves forward. The prosecution produces an eye-witness who saw the boys together on the afternoon of the murder, and others from Sebastian’s school and the neighbourhood where the crime took place who characterize Sebastian as a bully incapable of friendship. Though Daniel sometimes finds Sebastian unsettling and regards the boy’s interest in things related to death and blood unnatural, he tries not to let it distract him from his job. Moreover, Daniel can see that Sebastian has been affected by a less than ideal home life, with a self-medicating mother and a pushy, short-tempered father. Lisa Ballantyne’s novel proceeds along dual narrative lines: one thread following the case and Daniel’s defense strategy, the other showing us Daniel’s difficult childhood. The Guilty One is a smartly constructed novel that doles out clues in a deliberate manner, drawing the reader through its layered and complex plot toward a satisfying conclusion. In Daniel Hunter, Ballantyne has created an attractive and engaging protagonist, a young man riddled with self-doubt and regret, but also intelligent and self-aware. In this largely successful and highly entertaining debut novel, Lisa Ballantyne has written a dark and suspenseful legal procedural with a deeply affecting human dimension. show less