Book Description:
The explosive new thriller from international bestseller Anita Waller.
When Janette answers the door to a potential customer looking to board his dog, she never imagines he has nefarious plans.
But minutes later he’s dead and in her cellar.
Weeks later she realises she’s pregnant.
And so she becomes Mother and the baby Child, and a hidden life begins.
But all secrets come out eventually . . .
My Thoughts:
The start of the story is dark and disturbing. It certainly made for some uncomfortable reading.
Janette is a loner who has the least contact with the outside world as possible. Running dog kennels for a living, her only outward affection is for the four legged kind and it was heart-warming to see her bond with a couple of the dogs mentioned in the story. Janette is quite a complex character and I wasn’t sure, even now, how I feel about her. They say you are what you live and part of who she is can be excused but her relationship with her child is at times hard to stomach.
The story is split into mainly two parts. The first being Janette’s story with the second one being that of her child. It’s hard to say too much about the story as I don’t want to give too much away but it does keep you wondering as to that good old saying, an apple never falls far from it’s tree, metaphorically speaking or can it? A few times I second guessed how things would go in this story only to be completely wrong. The author is good at hoodwinking her readers so that what comes next is a total surprise.
The Family at No. 12 is a suspenseful, dark and chilling story. I don’t think it will be everyone’s cup of tea due to the nature of the storyline of which the author has never been one to shy away from tough subjects as sadly they do go on in everyday life. If you like your thrillers on the darker and twisted side however, then you will be in for a great ride with this book. It certainly kept me on edge with all sorts of things running through my head. Disturbing yet heart-breaking, this is another great read guaranteed to keep it’s readers turning those pages.
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