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The Child Who
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An unimaginable crime and the man who must defend it-a probing psychological thriller from the author of A Thousand Cuts.A chance phone call throws the biggest muder case in southern England into the hands of provincial attorney Leo Curtice. Twelve-year- old Daniel Blake stands accused of murdering an eleven-year-old girl. But who is truly responsible when one child kills
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Paperback, 303 pages
Published
February 28th 2012
by Penguin Books
(first published January 1st 2012)
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Showing 1-30
WOW! I didn’t see that ending coming at all! For once!! Now I have hope again that there are still original books with the capability of stumping me! After reading this & The House, I’m reading all of SL books!
An engaging story involving a twelve year old boy accused of the murder and rape of a young girl. We follow the solicitor in his taking on of the case and the turmoil and hate he faces representing a young boy accused of murder. The public hate him as they know of his identity and the solicitor is bombarded by hate and finger pointing. His wife and a young daughter soon find themselves having to face problems, due to his high profile and sensitive case. It was an interesting read and gives you a
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My thoughts on this one were rather mixed. I'll start with the good: the subject matter. The subject and the ethical questions associated with dealing with crimes by youth is fascinating to me. Given the horrid nature of his crimes, should Daniel be tried as an adult? Does his youth mean that he shouldn't be culpable?
Reading this book really made me think about these questions and innumerable others. I also thought, too, about the reactions people had to Daniel's crime. All of the flak that Leo ...more
Reading this book really made me think about these questions and innumerable others. I also thought, too, about the reactions people had to Daniel's crime. All of the flak that Leo ...more
Time taken to read - 2 days
Publisher - Penguin Books
Pages - 303
Blurb from Goodreads
An unimaginable crime and the man who must defend it-a probing psychological thriller from the author of A Thousand Cuts.A chance phone call throws the biggest muder case in southern England into the hands of provincial attorney Leo Curtice. Twelve-year- old Daniel Blake stands accused of murdering an eleven-year-old girl. But who is truly responsible when one child kills another? As Curtice sets out to defend the ...more
Publisher - Penguin Books
Pages - 303
Blurb from Goodreads
An unimaginable crime and the man who must defend it-a probing psychological thriller from the author of A Thousand Cuts.A chance phone call throws the biggest muder case in southern England into the hands of provincial attorney Leo Curtice. Twelve-year- old Daniel Blake stands accused of murdering an eleven-year-old girl. But who is truly responsible when one child kills another? As Curtice sets out to defend the ...more
OK. So I have mixed feelings about this book. I was looking forward to reading a gripping book about a child killer who kills a child. However, it was not gripping at all really....well maybe in small sections here and there but not enough to reflect the though-provoking subject. It never really develops into anything....The way it was written was fairly difficult to understand....when moving from chapter to chapter, the author refers to the characters simply as he or she, so you have to read a
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Jan 01, 2016
Plum-crazy
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review of another edition
Shelves:
read-2016,
twisty-and-not-so-twisty-thrillers
When this story started it had me both totally hooked & feeling such conflicting emotions, initially some surprise sympathy for the young murderer but mainly shock & disgust at the treatment his legal representative...AND his family....received from the general public - I thought I was in for really gripping rollercoaster of a read. Sadly, I didn't feel the momentum was maintained. The story swapped between past & present events but it chopped & changed in a way I found confusing
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The book starts off with a sort of celebration, as Leo had been assigned, by a judge what he considers the biggest case of his career. A child killing another child and from there the tension in the book does not let up. Lelic does not shy away from difficult subjects and his books are not for the faint of heart. This book is dark and gritty but has an underlying message pointing out the defects in our justice system and how easy it is to judge without fully being aware of the facts. Leo takes t
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I started this book hoping for an intense murder/mystery/why'd he do it novel and walked away with a semi-mediocre drama. The synopsis makes it sound like the reader will be watching the discovery of why the twelve year-old child murdered the eleven year old girl unfold, yet in reality all you really get is to witness how the community treats the public defender and his family because of his involvement with the case. There is really little said about the actual murder itself so you are left wit
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Great plot idea, and it kept me slightly interested; but the writing was muh and the main character was an idiot. I kept waiting for the book to end with him waking up in a mental ward having a psychotic break. There were only two reasons why I did not DNF this book. 1. The writer is so praised I wanted to give it a fair shot. 2. The writing is so simple it made for a fast read. I also really wanted to like it because the cover is pretty and I wanted a reason to keep the book.
This review is based on a free copy of this book supplied to me by the Publisher through the Goodreads First Reader Program
This is the story of the murder of an 11 year old girl by a 12 year old boy. The impact that had on the boy and his family; and the lawyer hired to defend him, and his family.
The main characters in the book are:
Leonard (Leo) Curtice – lawyer for Daniel
Daniel Blake – 12 year old accused murderer
Megan Curtice – Leo’s long suffering wife
Ellie Curtice – Leo’s 15 year old daughte ...more
This is the story of the murder of an 11 year old girl by a 12 year old boy. The impact that had on the boy and his family; and the lawyer hired to defend him, and his family.
The main characters in the book are:
Leonard (Leo) Curtice – lawyer for Daniel
Daniel Blake – 12 year old accused murderer
Megan Curtice – Leo’s long suffering wife
Ellie Curtice – Leo’s 15 year old daughte ...more
easy to fall into ... ending was good
A taut, excellent thriller, heavily based on the notorious Bulger/Mary Bell murder cases in the UK, Lelic handles a difficult topic bravely. There is no attempt to romanticise his murderer, 12 year old Daniel Blake and his main character, Leo Curtice, a rural attorney who accidentally picks up the trial of the year, is drawn into a complex and sympathetic relationship with the young killer at great personal cost.
Although I did not appreciate the attempt to justify the killer’s actions by blaming ...more
Although I did not appreciate the attempt to justify the killer’s actions by blaming ...more
Simon Lelic tackles the emotions aroused when a child kills a child, it aptly starts with Blake Morrison's quote from As If 'The men.... had come wanting to kill the kids who'd killed the kid, because there's nothing worse than killing a kid.
The story centres around Leo Curtice, the provincial solicitor assigned to the case of Daniel Blake a 12 year old boy accused of killing 11 year old Felicity Forbes. Cases like these don't come along very often and Leo thinks he is aware of the spotlight tha ...more
The story centres around Leo Curtice, the provincial solicitor assigned to the case of Daniel Blake a 12 year old boy accused of killing 11 year old Felicity Forbes. Cases like these don't come along very often and Leo thinks he is aware of the spotlight tha ...more
Twelve year old Daniel brutally murders Eleven year old Felicity. What follows is the fallout of his actions. Focusing on the Solicitor who defends him the story is gripping but unsettling as human emotions and conflict come to the fore.
Similarities to the Jamie Bulger case in Britain are veined throughout, the writer Simon Lelic highlights the raw facts leading to many thought provoking questions. Despite being an uncomfortable read this story is a real page turner.
Similarities to the Jamie Bulger case in Britain are veined throughout, the writer Simon Lelic highlights the raw facts leading to many thought provoking questions. Despite being an uncomfortable read this story is a real page turner.
Very emotional, the pain of the adults and the child in such an awful situation tangible. No spoiler but the ending was unanticipated. The book raised questions for me about how difficult society finds it to cope with children who kill; the perpetrator is also a victim who deserves compassion.
I strongly recommend that if you feel this book speaks to you, read Gitta Sereny on the case of Mary Bell.
I strongly recommend that if you feel this book speaks to you, read Gitta Sereny on the case of Mary Bell.
It took me a while to get in to this book, I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it, kept wanting to put it down but also wanted to know what happened. I thought it would be scared but, thankfully it wasn't!
Really good book, fabulous ending - not what I expected at all! And it was a really quick read, the chapters flew by quickly.
Really good book, fabulous ending - not what I expected at all! And it was a really quick read, the chapters flew by quickly.
A great read – left me with lots to consider. Only (very minor) challenge was I found it difficult to get my bearings at the beginning of each chapter. After mulling it over a bit, I'm wondering if that was the intent. That introductory haziness.
The slightly back-and-forth-in-time nature of the chapters (with no indications, so you have to figure out for yourself where that section fits in the timeline) can be a little bit of work, but otherwise I couldn't put this book down. I read it in two days.
In Simon Lelic’s gripping novel The Child Who, 12-year-old Daniel Blake has murdered 11-year-old Felicity Forbes. The act is inexplicable, morally repugnant and by any standard indefensible, and yet Daniel, having been arrested, is entitled to a defence. By chance, the case lands on the desk of solicitor Leonard (Leo) Curtice. Leo, intimidated by the heinous nature of the offence, initially approaches Daniel tentatively, expecting a monster. But it is not long before he is seduced by Daniel’s yo
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This book seemed to have a lot of potential, but such a lot going on that it ending up being way to vague.
It flicked from one part of the story to another and I felt like there were gaps to the story the reader needed to fill themselves.
Was quite a controversial subject to cover, especially focusing on defending an admitted 12 year old murderer and trying to get the reader to sympathise with this character. I often thought that the second part to the story - where his daughter allegedly got abdu ...more
It flicked from one part of the story to another and I felt like there were gaps to the story the reader needed to fill themselves.
Was quite a controversial subject to cover, especially focusing on defending an admitted 12 year old murderer and trying to get the reader to sympathise with this character. I often thought that the second part to the story - where his daughter allegedly got abdu ...more
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What is a society's responsibility when a child commits murder? What does justice mean--for the victims, the accused, the community? Lelic examines these questions in a frantic thriller focusing on the defense lawyer assigned to represent a juvenile murder suspect. The narrative hurtles almost too quickly toward disaster, perhaps intentionally echoing the speed with which the court system seeks to wash its hands of this problematic child. Plot and dialogue do all the work in this novel, while ch
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Jul 13, 2019
Cristina Reid
added it
Scary that society has this it is a story of children and some do terribly irreversible acts.
Sadly as it is so ethically against societies moral they see the child as evil, and they have not stood a chance at all. It seems as evil not why the child becomes like this and commits the murder, hidden by parents teachers and social workers and doctors often still today.
I marvel at the author who can write this
Sadly as it is so ethically against societies moral they see the child as evil, and they have not stood a chance at all. It seems as evil not why the child becomes like this and commits the murder, hidden by parents teachers and social workers and doctors often still today.
I marvel at the author who can write this
I was gripped from the start. I loved the way this book was written, how it jumped from past to present. The only downside is some of the characters. I found they were flat. It seemed like some of their reactions weren’t normal. They either overreacted or didn’t react enough. They weren’t as believable as they should have been, however I loved the story and I felt compelled to reach the end, even if it did annoy me a bit.
Novel about the disastrous effects on the protagonist, Leo, and his family when he decides to defend a 12 year old murder suspect. One of the central themes is "I'm sorry", and the novel explores its inadequacy to encompass the full spectrum of emotions, especially guilt. Yet, it is sometimes the only phrase that can be uttered.
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Child killer Daniel who is 12yrs old and his solicitor Leo who Is trying to find a clue in his background as to why he would kill a young girl in such a horrific way, his family in the meantime suffer harassment, and eventually the relationship disintegrates with the disappearance of his own daughter.
not as good as I though it would been
Disappointing read, it just felt all over the place.
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