Judas Child

Carol O'Connell

This book hurts. It is about pedophilia and sadism. The mystery is excellent. By the end of the book my emotions were wrenched. Two girls disappear. Did they run away? Or were they kidnapped? The reader knows they were kidnapped. And the reader feels the horror involved.

Rouge Kendall is a policeman in the town where the girls are kidnapped. Fifteen years earlier the same thing has happened to his sister. Her body had been found on Christmas Day. He was afraid of the same thing happening this December. A priest had been convicted of killing his sister. Was that what really happened?

Ali Cray has her Ph.D. in child psychology. She focuses on child abduction and terrorizing. She has an ugly scar down the middle of her face that she will not explain. She knows this current disappearance is part of a pattern. Can she convince the local, state, and federal police of this?

Gwen Hubble is a ten-year-old girl alone. She went to meet her friend Sadie when this monster took her. Where is Sadie? What is wrong with the room she is locked in? How can she get away? When would someone discover where she was?

This chilling, well written book reminds me why I stay away from horror novels.

Bone by Bone by Carol O'Connell