Judas Child by
Carol O'Connell
hbk out January 99
Published by Hutchinson
at £10
Carol O'Connell has taken a break from her NYPD maverick Kathy Mallory to produce a menacing and unsettling thriller that manages never to be quite what it seems. Set against a mysterious winter landscape that reflects the cold heart of a serial killer, The Judas Child introduces State Police Investigator Rouge Kendall, a brilliant child prodigy whose promise and ambition were hammered out of him by the abduction and murder of his twin sister fifteen years before. The local priest was jailed for the killing.
Then two girls vanish from the same school Rouge and his gifted sister attended. A clinical psychologist theorises that they are the latest victims of a killer who has been murdering girls every Christmas. And his first victim was Susan Kendall. The only problem is that nobody believes her. Against the backdrop of small town life, where everyone believes they know each other's secret histories, suspicion and mistrust suddenly start to bloom like rank weeds.
As the hunt for the missing girls intensifies, it becomes clear that everyone involved in the search has their own agenda. Self-justification, atonement, revenge, even love all have their strange and twisted roles to play in the unravelling of a tale that has more shocking surprises than a nail-biting horror film.
Carol O'Connell is a unique talent who deserves to be a household name. The Judas Child is a scary monster of a book that should make her just that.
(
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill)
Judas Child by
Carol O'Connell