Especially as the police, under massive pressure, have no answers. But months later Evan is unexpectedly found, frightened and refusing to speak. His loving family realise life will never be the same again.
DI Naylor knows that unless those who took Evan are caught, other children are in danger. And with Evan silent, she must race against time to find those responsible...
One minute a young boy is waiting at a bus stop after rugby practice, the next he's disappeared without a trace. The whole premise of Erin Kinsley's Found is every parent's nightmare but sadly it's becoming a frightening statistic as the numbers of children reported missing each day is increasing... some may have run away under their own steam, but sadly others have fallen victim to predators never to be seen again.
It's hard to categorise what genre Found falls into as it's part police procedural dealing with the case following Evan's disappearance, and part family drama as we follow Evan's parents Claire and Matt, and his paternal grandparents Jack and Dora as they try to cope with what has happened to him. We see the police and family at their breaking points as days turn into months with no new information as to what has happened to Evan until the unexpected happens and Evan is found purely by chance.
Everyone copes with things in their own way, for Claire and Matt their already strained relationship becomes under increasing pressure the longer time goes by until they are virtual strangers to one another. I'm sure that this is an all too realistic factor in many families that have experienced traumatic events or losses, you either come together as one or you close yourself off and find your own way to deal with things alone.
Whereas on the investigation side of things we see the realistic effect as to how budget cuts affect resources, especially when no new information or potential witnesses come forward, and how the investigation appears to take a back seat to higher priority easier to solve crimes. However, I was glad to see that DI Naylor couldn't let things lie and with the help of an ex colleague follows a few leads, namely the car that Evan was found in.
It's not surprising that Evan is not the same carefree young boy that he was before when he returns home, he has been severely affected by what he's gone through and is no longer talking. It's totally understandable that Evan uses selected mutism as a coping mechanism as we can only imagine what horrors he has been through, and I'm personally glad that the author didn't explore this element as I don't think I'd have been able to carry on reading.
It's up to DI Naylor to work with trained specialists to find a way to get Evan talking as they know that it's all too likely that now that he has been found, another young child could be taken. And before too long their worst fears are realised and they know that they need to get Evan talking but is he up to it? This is when the investigation really kicked into gear and with the little information that Evan is finally able to give them, along with the clues they have been following, we finally see some results and get some answers. Again this is left to the readers imagination and you can only imagine the conditions that he had been held in and everything he must have experienced.
One of the most heartwarming aspects of Found was the relationship between Evan and Jack, they had a real bond where words didn't need to be spoken. His grandparents farm was a safe place where he could retreat to recover by helping out with the animals or go fishing together as they used to when Evan was young. Some of their interactions together brought a real lump to my throat, the love for one another clearly shone through and it's with this love and support that we start to see Evan make his way back into the outside world.
Although hard to read at times, I felt that the whole subject of child abduction was handled delicately and sensitively by the author. A new author to me but I look forward to reading more from Erin Kinsley in the future.
Thanks so much for the blog tour support Sharon x
ReplyDelete