Book Review: An Unthinkable Thing

 


A tragedy brings a young boy into the home of a "perfect" family--one whose dark secrets begin closing in, until a horrifying moment changes everything.

Tommie Ware’s life is turned upside down the summer of 1958, just after his eleventh birthday. When his beloved aunt—the woman who raised him—doesn’t return after her shift as a night nurse and is later found murdered, there is only one place left for Tommie to go: “home” to the mother who handed him over the day he was born.

All is not as it seems behind the hedgerow surrounding the lavish Henneberry estate where Tommie’s mother, Esther, works as live-in housekeeper. Her employers have agreed he can stay until she “sorts things out,” but as she's at the family’s beck and call around the clock, Tommie is mostly left on his own to navigate the grounds, the massive house, and the twisted family inside.

Soon he is enmeshed in the oppressive attentions of matriarch Muriel, who is often heavily medicated, and of fifteen-year-old, Martin, who treats Tommie sometimes like a kid brother, sometimes like a pawn in a confusing game. While Dr. Henneberry mostly ignores Tommie, he also seems eager for him to be gone. Then there’s the elderly neighbour, who may know more about the family's past than anyone else will say.

By summer's end, the secrets and games tighten around Tommie and his mother, until a horrific crime is discovered and we are faced with an unthinkable question: could an eleven-year-old boy really have committed cold-blooded murder?


My Review

It has been a while since I have read a "really good" trial crime story. Which I was very happy to find that this book was just that. Both the storyline and the investigation/trial sections were just as intriguing. If anything, these sections just added another layer to the overall story. 

I was not very far into the story when I was already trying to solve the case. To be honest, I was about 90% sure I had it figured out as well. Yet, the twist near the end of the storyline is one that I really didn't see coming. Ok, maybe I gave the notion a brief thought but still I was shocked at the reveal. If you are looking for your next book to read, then you do have to pick up a copy of this book. 



NICOLE LUNDRIGAN is the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including Hideaway, which was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel, The Substitute, and Glass Boys. Her work has appeared on “best of” selections from The Globe and Mail, Amazon.ca, Chatelaine, Now magazine, and others. She grew up in Newfoundland, and now lives in Toronto.


Social media links:

www..nicolelundrigan.com

https://www.facebook.com/njlundrigan/

https://www.instagram.com/nicolejlundrigan/ 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let's Get Buck Naked!

Image
Description Sadie Becker is not herself. A 40-year-old, divorced mother of two, Sadie wakes up one morning and realizes that she looks and feels like she did in her twenties. Suddenly she’s unable to walk around in her new town of Cougarville without men falling at her feet. Confused and alone, Sadie isn’t sure who to turn toÖexcept answers to her problems might reside with her broodingly handsome reclusive neighbor, Mathis.  An alpha shifter, Mathis lost the love of his life, and he knows he’ll never find another mate. But his innocent new neighbor clearly doesn’t know the danger she’s in, and he's the only one who can save her.  But when the attraction pulls too strong, will Mathis’ animal nature be unleashed and claim Sadie for his own?  Buck Naked  is a sexy, emotional thrill-ride that will hook readers on this fantastic new series.   Author Bio Evangeline Anderson is the author of the Brides of the Kindred, Alien Mate Index, and Bor...
Read more

Book Giveaway

Image
As a little girl, Jane has no one. Her mother, the powerful head of a Broadway theater company, has no time for her. She does have one friend-a handsome, comforting, funny man named Michael-but only she can see him.Years later, Jane is in her thirties and just as alone as ever. Then she meets Michael again-as handsome, smart and perfect as she remembers him to be. But not even Michael knows the reason they've really been reunited.SUNDAYS AT TIFFANY'S is a love story with an irresistible twist, a novel about the child inside all of us-and the boundary-crossing power of love. So it is a new year. I hope everyone is having a great one so far. Thanks to Hachette, I have 5 copies of Sunday's at Tiffany's to giveaway to readers. Open only to US and Canada. No PO Boxes. Leave a comment with your email address if you would like to be entered to win. Thank you Contest ends January 30th. I will pick the winners January 31st. Thanks and Good Luck
Read more

If You Tell: A True Story of Murder

Image
#1 New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen’s shocking and empowering true-crime story of three sisters determined to survive their mother’s house of horrors. After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word mom , it claws like an eagle’s talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now. For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn into their mother’s dark and perverse web, the sisters found the strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that culminated in multiple murders. Harrowing and heartrending, If You Tell is a survivor’s story of absolute evil—and the freedom and justice that Nikki, Sami, and T...
Read more