A missing child.
A shattered family.
A mother’s love that knows no bounds.

In 1984, two-year-old Robert disappeared from his cabin aboard The Carousel, a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, while his family slept nearby. Despite Kimberly and her husband Jason’s desperate efforts, Robert is never found.

Forty years later, Kimberly's daughter, Lily, now a psychotherapist juggling her career, family life, and her role as peacekeeper between her divorced parents, finds her world shaken.

When a new client, Zach, reveals haunting childhood memories of an "imaginary other mother," Lily begins to question the long-held belief that Robert drowned.

Told through three perspectives across different time periods, the book follows Kimberly, grappling with the devastation of her son’s disappearance in the 1980s; Lily, navigating the aftermath in the present day; and Sally, whose story unfolds in the 1960s, initially seems unrelated but eventually tying in.

The emotional depth of The Stolen Child is remarkable. Kimberly’s anguish and Lily’s struggle to escape the shadow of her brother’s disappearance are poignantly portrayed.

Lily’s resentment at how the tragedy fractured her family is both heart-wrenching and relatable. Meanwhile, Sally’s tale is equally compelling—her resilience and strength shine through her heartbreaking circumstances, making her a standout character.

While I suspected some of the twists, the book’s well-crafted plot kept me hooked. It raises thought-provoking moral dilemmas and explores themes of loss, family bonds, and the enduring impact of unresolved trauma. A beautifully written and thoughtful family drama, The Stolen Child is as gripping as it is moving.

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This was an engaging family drama which tells the story from the viewpoints of three different women during different time frames starting in the 80s with Kimberly whose life is turned upside down when her toddler son Robert vanishes from their cabin one night whilst they are in a cruise, forty years on in the present day Kimberly’s daughter Lily is stunned when a client suggests he knows what happened to her brother all those years ago. We also have Sally’s story to.d from when she was a child in the 60s although it’s difficult to see how her story intersects until near the very end.

I really felt for Kimberly and Lily as the impact of Robert’s disappearance has understandably shadowed their lives especially Lily who grew up in her brothers shadow and hates to see how it destroyed her parents. Sally has a heartbreaking story of her own but I thought she was an amazing strong character who had a lot to contend with. I did actually have some idea of the direction this would take however the plotting was great and worked well. There’s a lot of moral dilemmas and thought provoking moments in this and overall it’s an incredibly thoughtful read.

A mother is distraught when her young child goes missing while they are on holiday on a cruise ship.
Years later her daughter wants to find out what happened to her brother.
The formatting on this novel was very distracting and a challenge to read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

I hate giving up on a book. But this copy has numbers constantly through it. Was very off putting and u couldn’t read it. Will try when it comes out

I have really enjoyed the author’s previous novels and was so looking forward to this.
Unfortunately as seems to be increasingly common with NetGalley ARCs I was unable to read this due to the numbers on almost every other line of the text. I have visual issues and find it even more difficult out to focus on the text when it’s interrupted in this way.
Very disappointing but I will be purchasing the novel on release.
Star rating does not reflect content of the novel just the formatting.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.