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Published Feb 2012
320 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
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 murder 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.
Paperback original
"Starred Review. British author Lelic follows his acclaimed debut, A Thousand Cuts, with an equally gripping psychological thriller also inspired by a horrific real-life crime… the plot unfolds in a way few readers will anticipate." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Lelic faces thorny issues of guilt and responsibility head on, and no one comes out unscathed." - Kirkus Reviews
"An agile, perceptive writer... Could this be Lelic's breakthrough book? It deserves to be." - The Guardian (UK)
"By page three, Simon Lelic's harrowing and haunting novel The Child Who has you utterly in its snares. A daring writer but also a deeply open- hearted one, he renders his flawed but sympathetic characters with the most tender of hands, heightening the tale's suspense and drawing us even closer." - Megan Abbott, author of The End of Everything
This information about The Child Who was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Simon Lelic has worked as a journalist and currently runs his own business. He was born in Brighton, England in 1976 and lives there now with his wife and two sons. For more information, visit his website at www.simonlelic.com.
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