........... This Christmas I reached a Granny milestone; both my Hackney granddaughters gave me books for Christmas. These are titles they chose for themselves. Lola gave me this title and one other. Ruby chose a non-fiction book based on its title and subject matter. It was a brilliant choice. I will be reading these remaining two books over the next few weeks.
The Foster Child is the third novel by Jenny Blackhurst and came out in paperback in November 2017. Her other two titles were published in 2015 and 2016. She grew up in Shropshire where she still lives with her husband and children. Growing up she spent hours reading and talking about crime novels – writing her own seemed like natural progression.
The plot is quite cleverly crafted although the narrative is somewhat erratic in flow. It's all a bit bumpy and there is no sense of a time frame within which the action takes place. There are elements of the paranormal and a writer has to work quite hard to hold the attention of her reader. The principal protagonists are Ellie, the foster child, and Imogen who is a social worker. As the character of the latter unfolds I'm not sure she comes over as a convincing member of the cast in the story. Her actions do not always ring true. As the story progresses the reader is never quite sure with whom they should be siding, in terms of a good outcome for Ellie. The author has a good twist up her sleeve for the denouement and there is a bit of a shocker on the final page. That is always a good device to leave the reader with the feeling 'Well, I did not see that coming'.
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