It’s an absolute delight to be taking part in the blog tour for this fascinating book.
The Vanished Child will tug at your heartstrings. It’s very powerful, extremely moving and unputdownable.
Jayne, a genealogist, takes on a job for her new step-mother, Vera. On her death bed, Vera’s mother, Freda, revealed to her that she has an older brother who was illegitimate. The boy, Harry, was sent to a home and then foster parents. Freda hoped to claim him again, but when she was ready to do so she discovered he’d been shipped, as did an obscene number of children over many years, out to the old ‘colonies’ purportedly for new, rich lives with loving families, but that was frequently far from the truth. Freda is filled with regret for what happened.
There are two storylines in The Vanished Child – one in the 1950s where we follow the events surrounding Harry and the other in the present day. This second one revolves around Jayne and her meticulous genealogical research. We move between the two which makes the book so alive and tantalising. Each period is depicted in detail, and the settings in both the UK and Australia are convincing and enveloping.
Jayne is an interesting character with family mysteries of her own to discover. She’s very likeable, and also admirable as she’s conscientious, pleasant and determined. Her life comes over as familiar and cosy to us with her Nespresso machine, cat, and other homely details. This creates a very convincing character, one we care about. It’s fascinating to follow her research, and very interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes in this sort of investigation.
Harry’s life is far less cosy, and we cringe as we see what happens to him, but take heart from his strength and determination, especially in one so young. But so much time has passed and there are difficulties for Jayne and her work colleague Duncan to overcome in their search for the vanished child. Has it all been left too late? Can you really trace someone who’s half a world away after more than sixty years? You’ll have to read this poignant book for yourself to find out if there can be a happy ending for this fractured family. It’s absolutely to be recommended.
The Vanished Child
What would you do if you discovered you had a brother you never knew existed?
On her deathbed, Freda Duckworth confesses to giving birth to an illegitimate child in 1944 and temporarily placing him in a children’s home. She returned later but he had vanished.
What happened to the child? Why did he disappear? Where did he go?
Jayne Sinclair, genealogical investigator, is faced with lies, secrets, and one of the most shameful episodes in recent history as she attempts to uncover the truth.
Can she find the vanished child?
This book is the fourth in the Jayne Sinclair Genealogical Mystery series, but can be read as a standalone novel.
Every childhood lasts a lifetime.
Purchase Link – myBook.to/vanishedchild
Author Bio – Martin has spent most of his adult life writing in one form or another. As a University researcher in history, he wrote pages of notes on reams of obscure topics. As a social worker with Vietnamese refugees, he wrote memoranda. And, as the creative director of an advertising agency, he has written print and press ads, tv commercials, short films and innumerable backs of cornflake packets and hotel websites.
He has spent 25 years of his life working outside the North of England. In London, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Bangkok and Shanghai, winning awards from Cannes, One Show, D&AD, New York and London Festivals, and the United Nations.
When he’s not writing, he splits his time between the UK and Asia, taking pleasure in playing with his daughter, researching his family history, single-handedly solving the problem of the French wine lake and wishing he were George Clooney.
Social Media Links –
Website: www.writermjlee.com
Twitter – https://twitter.com/WriterMJLee
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/writermjlee
Follow the book’s tour here:
‘Riding Shotgun’, the second story, sees Joe Gibson, mystery writer, finds himself in a truly nightmare scenario where he is forced into taking actions he really doesn’t want to take in order to save the life of his kidnapped daughter. Despite keeping his side of the agreement, Emily is not released and this drives him further into the depths. He teams up with an assortment of unsavoury characters to track her down and gain revenge at the same time. Mertis Whitlock is the cop relentlessly on his trail. This is a bitter-sweet story, very grey morally as who of us wouldn’t take extreme actions to save their own child.
Author Bio – Andy Rausch is a freelance film journalist, author, and celebrity interviewer. He has published more than twenty books on the subject of popular culture, including The Films of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, Making Movies with Orson Welles (with Gary Graver), and The Cinematic Misadventures of Ed Wood (with Charles E. Pratt, Jr.). His work has appeared in Shock Cinema, both Screem and Scream magazines, Senses of Cinema, Diabolique, Creative Screenwriting, Film Threat, Bright Lights Film Journal, and Images: A Journal of Film and Popular Culture. He has written several works of fiction including Mad World, Elvis Presley: CIA Assassin, Riding Shotgun and Other American Cruelties, and the short story collection Death Rattles. He has also worked as a screenwriter, producer, and actor on numerous straight-to-video horror films.
This book is deliciously fascinating. What better way to learn about a country’s history than by being introduced to it around a certain food item, such as artichokes, wine or cheese. The author explains how politics, economics and culture link with food in ‘foodways’, which reveal a great deal about a country. We discover many such foodways in this book. 
My life to date is what compels me to seek a just outcome, the good will overcome and the bad will be punished. More though, I tend to see my characters as everyday people in extraordinary circumstances, but in which we may all find our selves if the planets align wrongly or for whatever reason you might consider.
Bettina Hunt lives in England with her husband and two sons. Without A Hitch is her second novel. She blogs about beauty, afternoon tea, spas and travel, as well as sharing poems and short stories at www.beautyswot.com. She can be found on Twitter most days – join in the chat @BeautySwot.
The book begins with the warning “Never meet your heroes”, since they have a tendency to turn out rather disappointing in real life, and initially that definitely seems to be the case for the narrator of this book. He has travelled to Greece to meet his idol, the Greek author Irakles Bastounis. Bastounis is an era-defining author who has brushed shoulders with many others and been married to Miss Venezuela, amongst other wives. Not surprisingly our young man, whose name we never learn, is daunted when his dream actually comes true and so he fluffs up his initial meeting with the literary giant. However, he gets a second chance when Bastounis commands, not asks, him to drive him somewhere. This one somewhere becomes many as the two form an unlikely partnership as they travel through Greece together to places with significance in Greek mythology. “Myths are our roots,” according to Bastounis.
