The Quiet Child
The Quiet Child by John Burley
Paperback, 304 pages
Published August 8th 2017 by William Morrow Paperbacks
From the award-winning author of The Absence of Mercy, comes a gripping and darkly psychological novel about family, suspicion, and the price we are willing to pay to protect those we love the most.
It’s the summer of 1954, and the residents of Cottonwood, California, are dying. At the center of it all is six-year-old Danny McCray, a strange and silent child the townspeople regard with fear and superstition, and who appears to bring illness and ruin to those around him. Even his own mother is plagued by a disease that is slowly consuming her.
Sheriff Jim Kent, increasingly aware of the whispers and rumors surrounding the boy, has watched the people of his town suffer—and he worries someone might take drastic action to protect their loved ones. Then a stranger arrives, and Danny and his ten-year-old brother, Sean, go missing. In the search that follows, everyone is a suspect, and the consequences of finding the two brothers may be worse than not finding them at all.
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My thoughts about The Quiet Child ~~
(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)
First line—"Michael McCray squinted into the low-hanging sun as he swung the liberty blue Mercury four-door into the Century Grocery parking lot off Gas Point Road,. At 7:45 P.M., the last of the August daylight still lingered, not yet willing to surrender to the town of Cottonwood, California, to the custody of the night."
Not only is The Quiet Child so well written that the words just flowed off the pages, the story was intriguing and suspenseful enough to make me not what to put it down. I loved the way the author wrote the descriptions so as to make me feel like I was totally immersed in the scenes he was describing. It was all so detailed and well written without being overdone.
And the twists and turns of the storyline. Wow! So much there that I was not expecting—so many thing that are not what they seem to be. This is an author that I will definitely be reading again.
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About the author
John Burley attended medical school in Chicago and completed his residency in emergency medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. He currently serves as an emergency medicine physician in Northern California, where he lives with his wife and daughter, and their Great Dane and English bulldog.
Connect with John
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Check out other stops on the tour
Check out other stops on the tour
Tuesday, August 8th: The Ludic Reader
Wednesday, August 9th: The Book Bag
Thursday, August 10th: Buried Under Books
Thursday, August 10th: No More Grumpy Bookseller
Friday, August 11th: Bewitched Bookworms
Monday, August 14th: From the TBR Pile
Tuesday, August 15th: Kahakai Kitchen
Tuesday, August 15th: SJ2B House Of Books
Wednesday, August 16th: Readaholic Zone
Thursday, August 17th: Tina Says…
Monday, August 21st: Jenn’s Bookshelves
Tuesday, August 22nd: StephTheBookworm
Wednesday, August 23rd: Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile
Wednesday, August 23rd: Art Books Coffee
Thursday, August 24th: A Bookworm’s World
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There is so much going on in this book - ill mom, mute child, small town, kidnapping! I love that the author kept you on your toes throughout.
ReplyDeleteThanks for being a part of the tour!