The Other Child by Lucy Atkins

The Other Child by Lucy Atkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - on and off over 3 days

Pages - 390

Publisher - Quercus

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

Sometimes a lie seems kinder than the truth . . . but what happens when that lie destroys everything you love?

When Tess is sent to photograph Greg, a high profile paediatric heart surgeon, she sees something troubled in his face, and feels instantly drawn to him. Their relationship quickly deepens, but then Tess, single mother to nine-year-old Joe, falls pregnant, and Greg is offered the job of a lifetime back in his hometown of Boston. Before she knows it, Tess is married, and relocating to the States. But life in an affluent American suburb proves anything but straightforward.

Unsettling things keep happening in the large rented house, Joe is distressed, the next-door neighbours are in crisis, and Tess is sure that someone is watching her. Greg's work is all-consuming and, as the baby's birth looms, he grows more and more unreachable. Something is very wrong, Tess knows it, and then she makes a jaw-dropping discovery . . .


My review

Tess has upped sticks and moved with her son to Boston to be with her husband Greg and his job of a lifetime, paediatric heart surgeon. Feeling isolated things between Tess and Greg become tense, weird things keep happening in the house, someone is sending threats to Greg and Tess can't work out her neighbours intentions. Is it paranoia or is someone terrorising Tess and what is Greg hiding from her?

Whilst there are aspects of this book I did enjoy and like then there were things that really grated me. I did enjoy the tension, the way Atkins build up an atmosphere that had me turning page after page to find out what was going on. Slowly leading you on, crumb by crumb and giving you questionable actions and characters you weren't sure where you stood. At times Tess really irritated me, I wanted to scream at her for some of her very suspect actions, lack of or just her chain of thought. I suspected everyone and trusted nothing which is always a great thing for an author to achieve with a reader.

I really disliked many of the characters which isn't a bad thing as many hated characters have made books the success they are. I don't like when characters do a complete change in their character and I felt that happened a wee bit in this. There are a fair few twists and it was an interesting read but I just felt the things that annoyed me really annoyed me. 3/5 for me this time, this was my first dance with this author, I would read her again.

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