The Only Child

 The Only Child

Reviewed By  Nan van Dissel       November 13, 2022

 

Author  Kayte Nunn

Distributor:      Hachette Australia
ISBN:                 9780733648441
Publisher:         Hachette Australia
Release Date:   September 2022  

   Website:   https://www.hachette.com.au

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Between 1945 and 1973 one and a half million babies were given up for adoption in the USA; the young single mothers were often coerced into giving up their babies within a few weeks of birthing them. The practice, known more recently as forced adoption, was reportedly common in Australia between the 1950s and 1980s, with authorities failing to gain free and informed consent from thousands of young, unwed mothers before their newborns were removed.

Award winning author Kayte Nunn in her latest book ‘The Only Child’, intertwines the story of the treatment of these women in the late 1940s with an intriguing mystery murder plot set in 2013. 

After a five year absence Frankie Gray, returns to the US and joins her mother, Diana, who is restoring the derelict Fairmile House, on an island in Puget Sound, which had served as a Catholic home for unwed mothers in the 1940s and 1950’s. She is looking forward to reconnecting with her teenage daughter, Izzy, before taking on a less stressful job as deputy sheriff on this normally sleepy island. 

When the death of an elderly retired Nun in the Island’s nursing home where Frankie’s grandmother resides is deemed suspicious and then a tiny skeleton is discovered in the backyard of Fairmile House, Frankie can’t stay out of the murder investigations; there are questions which need answers.  Her informal investigations lead Frankie to discover the dark secrets behind the grand home which her mother is renovating.

‘The Only Child’ is in part an historical fiction and in part a crime mystery, with a touch of romance in which the narrative spans a dual timeline; 1949/50 Seattle and 2013 on a fictional island in Puget Sound.

Readers will find this a fast but worthwhile read.

Crime, Fiction, History