The Other Child

Starred review from February 25, 2013
Link, a bestseller in her native Germany, makes her U.S. debut with a sophisticated and thoughtful mystery set in England. After an ominous prologue, in which a woman stumbles across an unnamed secret on a remote farm in Yorkshire in 1970, the action shifts to 2008 in the same area. College student Amy Mills leaves a babysitting gig late at night to travel home, only to find her regular, relatively safe route blocked off, which proves to be a prelude to her brutal killing. Both incidents recede into the background as Link presents a large cast of characters drawn together by the engagement of Gwen Beckett, a wallflower whose fiancé is viewed as only being after the farm she’s due to inherit. More death follows, with the motive possibly linked to Gwen’s father’s disturbing past and the tragic fallout from the evacuation of children from London during the Blitz. Fans of Ruth Rendell and Minette Walters will be enthralled.