A Stranger in the Family

by Robert Barnard

From Robert Barnard, the internationally acclaimed Diamond Dagger–winning crime writer . . .

Kit Philipson has always felt like something of a stranger in his family. Growing up as the only child of professional parents in Glasgow, Scotland, he had every advantage. His mother was a teacher; his father, a journalist, escaped from Nazi Germany at the age of three on one of the 1939 Kindertransports. But on her deathbed, Kit’s mother tells him he was adopted and that his birth name was Novello. Soon, vague memories of his early life begin to surface: his nursery, pictures on the wall, the smell of his birth mother when she’d been cooking. And, sometimes, there are more disturbing memories—of strangers taking him by the hand and leading him away from the only family he had ever known. A search of old newspaper files reveals that a three-year-old boy named Peter Novello was abducted from his parents’ holiday hotel in Sicily in 1989. Now the young man who has known himself only as Kit sets out to rediscover his past, the story of two three-year-old boys torn from their mothers in very different circumstances. Kit’s probing inquiries are sure to bring surprises. They may also unearth dangerous secrets that dare never be revealed.

With sharp wit and deep insight, Robert Barnard sweeps away all preconceptions in this powerful study of maternal love and the danger of obsession.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Novels, Fiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Aka Bernard Bastable.

Robert Barnard (born 23 November 1936) was an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.

Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Royal Grammar School in Colchester and at Balliol College in Oxford. His first crime novel, A Little Local Murder, was published in 1976. The novel was written while he was a lecturer at University of Tromsø in Norway. He has gone on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories.

Barnard has said that his favourite crime writer is Agatha Christie. In 1980 he published a critique of her work titled A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie.

Barnard was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2003 by the Crime Writers Association for a lifetime of achievement.

Under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable, Robert Barnard has published one standalone novel and three alternate history books starring Wolfgang Mozart as a detective, he having survived to old age.

Barnard lived with his wife Louise in Yorkshire.

Series:
* Perry Trethowan
* Charlie Peace

Reviews

[Kerrie]

After the death of his adoptive mother Kit Philipson decides to contact his birth mother to see what she can tell him about how he came to be adopted. By the time he meets her Kit knows that he was abducted while on holiday with his family at the age of 3. His welcome by his birth mother is effusive but that by her children is very guarded.

Kit comes to suspect that he was abducted to order, and that his adoptive father possibly knew more than he ever told. His search for the truth takes him to Leeds, to Vienna, and to Sicily.

An interesting if not particularly believable plot, with some quite nasty characters.

An author I should read more by.

[Sharon]

Reading this book becomes a chores to me.
I couldn't follow the flow of the storyline.
One minute, they going to have dinner then suddenly tongue-lashing about inheritance while the mother still alive and currently present in the dining room.
After all the hustle from going to Austria then to Italy, discovered the truth and all, you going back to Glasgow?
I'm sure the editor didn't noticed the error in this book.
On page 30, there's a character named Ivor Battersby.
But on page 131, the name became Ivan Battersby.

[Lukasz Pruski]

"[...] what is the connection between a Leeds solicitor's family and a literary-academic family in Glasgow headed by a Jewish refugee?"

I have been recently dealing with heavy stuff at work so here is yet another "leisure read" (almost no thinking required when reading) from Robert Barnard. A Stranger in the Family (2010) promises "A novel of suspense" on the cover, and sort of delivers, particularly in the latter part of the novel. Mr. Barnard again displays a skill unusual for authors of mystery/suspense/crime novels: the endings of his books are usually better than the beginnings. In fact, the beginning of this novel is barely readable and I had to grind my teeth to plough through.

Suppose you are abducted from your birth parents and siblings as a three-year old child and raised by an adoptive family. Suppose you are twenty-two when you learn about the abduction and you finally meet your birth family. This is pure soap-opera territory yet eventually all the trappings of TV-caliber idiocy disappear and the story almost begins to work: the 70-year-old past provides keys to the mystery.

The novel begins with scenes of late August 1939. Children are on a train passing through the Netherlands and set out for the United Kingdom. This is one of the last transports in the Kindertransport, a large-scale rescue effort aiming to save mostly Jewish children from countries that were (or were soon to be) under German rule.

Kit Philipson was born as Peter Novello in a Leeds solicitor's family. At the age of three, during the family's stay in Sicily, he had been abducted, and ended up as an adopted child in Philipson family in Glasgow. His adoptive father, Jürgen, was one of the children rescued in the Kindertransport action in 1939. Now that his adopted parents are dead Kit wants to meet his birth family. Things are not that easy, though. His birth father does not seem to know him. Links to Glasgow gang world and connection with Sicilian Mafia emerge.

The author serves some gang-style silly theatrics late in the novel, but the actual ending is in fact quite far from silly bestseller stuff. Mr. Barnard offers a quiet, serene, and wise ending, which I like a lot and which sort of balances the soap opera and gang aspects of the plot. The "Barnard mystery" will never cease to fascinate me: how come most of his books are poor reads at the beginning and then, as the plot develops, get better and better? I will definitely read a few more Barnards.

Two and a half stars.

[Liz]

The final chapter is the best in this book and the final paragraphs provide the insight which has been missing from the earlier chapters. Kit the protagonist in his late teens loses both parents and while nursing his mother through cancer discovers not only that he is adopted but that it was an illegal adoption because he had been abducted to order. All this he takes in his stride and goes off to introduce himself to his birth parents and siblings. His birth family are welcoming, apart from one brother who thinks he is after a share of the family house, but not ecstatic.
The earlier chapters are plodding, with trivial detail particularly about food, and a few author’s opinions about matters such as London hotel pricing, but as Kit digs into his past, and that of both his birth and adoptive parents, gradually a story about Nazi Germany and Italy begins to emerge.

[Joy]

I'm a long time Robert Barnard reader. His mysteries pack extraordinary events into a perfectly ordinary life. No need for danger and thrills to make his stories interesting. In the case of A STRANGER IN THE FAMILY, Kit is told at age 23 that he was adopted, as his adoptive mother is dying. It's perfectly natural in such a case to try to fill the gap after her death by tracking down his birth family. But things don't fit. Kit starts digging, and finds himself following the trail past the strange dynamics of his birth family, to the Holocaust. Kit will have to decide what to do about a situation that has resulted from the twisty morals of some of the characters.

I will say that Kit's voice sounds considerably more mature than 23 years.

[Kathy]

This is the second book by Robert Barnard that deals with the mystery of an adopted child, in this case one who was kidnapped in Italy and given to a childless couple in Scotland. Kit's painstaking research leads him to his birth family and beyond. As usual for this author, there is a satisfying ending for an appealing character.

[B]

I liked this book.

[Kat Walter]

Slow, boring and no suspense. I have tried 2 books by this author and didn’t care for either one. Note to self: don’t try another.

[Suzanne Heritage]

Too much 'telling', not enough 'showing'. Disappointing.

[Yas]

3.75 ⭐️

[Jeannie May]

Unusual book. Enjoyed it overall

[Darlene]

All I can say is- "Thank goodness I am finally done with this book". I found this book at a book sale at one of my local libraries so I can say I am glad I didn't pay too much for this book. This was a rather "dry" read for me. I thought the story line sounded good, a three year old kidnapped in 1989 and later found his family. The story line focused more on the reason behind the kidnapping rather than when he finally found his real family. The book opened with him standing outside his birth mother's home in Leeds, which is in England, and he finally goes to the door, rings the bell and tells who he is. There is no over emotion of a long lost son returning home that was taken while the family was on holiday. The mother invited him in, showed him his old room, blah blah blah. Where is the emotion? The hugs, crying, the happiness of him still being alive? There was none of that. Then there were the siblings. The two older ones remembered him, seemed somewhat happy to see him. Then there was a brother born after the kidnapping that all he cared about was the money that would come from the parents and how he might not get his full share. Really? Maybe that does happen. But there was no love between any of the siblings towards Kit, the one that was kidnapped. The story focused on him finding out the reason behind his kidnapping because he felt it wasn't a normal kidnapping. The story went back to the early 1900's when his adoptive father and aunt were taken out of the country they were in because of all the Jewish people being taken to camps and other places and it was becoming unsafe for them to be there. They were placed on a kindertransport that took children safely to other countries where most often they were adopted by other families. Kit, as he is referred to in the story, took it upon himself to find out the truth behind his kidnapping because his birth parents remained silent about it. His birth father denied that he was his son, the mother never talked about how sad she was that he was taken, how they looked for him and never gave up hope of finding him or having him return sometime later on his own. Personally, I think I would've hired a private investigator or something instead of trying to do this on my own. He learned that his adoptive father knew of his kidnapping because it was planned by his birth father and his adoptive fathers father who was part of the Mafia at that time. The story took him to different people, places and everyone seemed to welcome him and answer his questions to some degree. In reality, that would probably never happen. The Mafia usually take all precautions to cover all their tracks no matter what it is. He also learned that there was a possibility that his birth mother may have been in on the kidnapping as well. After learning this, he never questioned her about it-not that she would've told the truth. I think the family lived with a lie for so long, they couldn't believe anything else. I would've liked to of seen more interaction with his family after they learned he was alive and had came back to them. But there was none. I realize that in situations such as this, when the person is found/returns, most families take time to warm up to that person, but then there are ones that immediately welcome back into the family as if nothing had happened. I have two more books by this author and really hope they aren't as dry a read as this one was. This is my third book I have read by authors from the England area. Maybe that is how they write books there compared to authors I am used to reading that leave you hanging on the edge of your seat and not wanting to put the book down to find out what happens next. This book was not that way. I only kept reading it to see if it would get any better and I had a very easy time putting it down. It took me longer then normal to read a book just over 200 pages. Usually I can read one that short in a day or two, this took me 5 days to read.

[Samyuktha jayaprakash]

The book started off brilliantly and is very easy to read. However the characters are all cut out of the same cardboard the direction of the story is implausible. If I was abducted as a child why would I go into the back history of my adopted father? and towards the end the story felt ... pointless. if it used the same setting to tell a story about the birth mother's legacy that would really have been interesting. Digging a past crime which has no repercussions is just blah

[H L]

I chose this from my local library because of all the praise for the author and his lifetime achievements in mystery writing. And in the end, I did like the mystery here. By the end it felt a bit far fetched, but I was still interested.
The book opens with a 22-year-old boy/man meeting his birth mother for the first time. That was too big a jump for me. The book opens with this highly emotional scene that didn't inspire any emotions at all. In fact, this is my greatest criticism of the book--no real interior life for any of the characters. There were all these things happening, all these shocking revelations, and everyone sort of took them in stride. Or if they were upset, we are told they are upset, but there is no other evidence of it.
So Kit Phillipson tries to find out what happened when he was 3 and was abducted in Italy while on a family vacation and stopped being Peter Novello and became the boy he was. There are many twists and turns, and, as I said, this was the best part.
It ends up that Kit had a much happier life with his adopted parents--mother art academic and father newspaper editor--than he every would've had with his birth family--lower middle class, parents divorced, etc.
I was hoping for more with this plot set up.

[Jack]

The story of a young man who learns that he is adopted, his quick and easy search for his birth family, and his longer and slightly more difficult search for the backgrounds of his birth and adoptive fathers.

I wanted to give this book more than three stars. It starts out strong, and has many interesting elements. But it has weaknesses too, including having every character speak with the same voice, using the same expressions and way of thought. It is impossible to keep them separate based on voice alone.

Similarly, every character is passionless, including two who are very worked up about what is going on. But we have to be told that, because the author is not really showing it to us, aside from one brief phone conversation with his newly discovered brother.

Overall, a compelling premise with surprises and revelations that should have really grabbed the reader but somehow don't.

I highly recommend a similar book, The Assault, by Harry Mulisch. It doesn't involve an adoption, but does also follow a man who feels compelled to investigate a mystery in his past. In both books the investigation is in the present, but the mystery traces back to WW II. However, The Assault is a superior read in every way.

[Nikki]

When I see a new Robert Barnard book on the library shelf, I can't
resist it. Not that I've read all his books yet -- I'm actually
considering going back to read some of the ones I read 30 years ago,
and then filling in the gaps. I've never been disappointed in a
Barnard book yet.

Like his recent LAST POST, A STRANGER IN THE FAMILY follows a young
person who, after a parent's death, discovers some long-hidden family
secrets and is compelled to investigate further. Protagonist Kit
Philipson is an eminently sane young man who finds himself among some
pretty dysfunctional relatives he hadn't known he had. His
investigations into his and his family's past take him to Vienna to
learn about the dangerous pre-war years, and then...but I don't want
to put in any spoilers. I generally try not to delve too deeply into
why mystery writers choose the plots they do, but I am just a bit
curious why Barnard has chosen a similar plot beginning for two quite
different books within a few years. I'd definitely recommend this or
any Barnard book; he writes both series and stand-alones, equally good
in different ways.

[Rog Harrison]

Robert Barnard, who died last month, got his first novels published in the early 1970s and I probably first came across his books in the late 1970s. Over the years I have read most of them, some three or four times. Before writing this I had a look at some of the reviews I had written over the past few years and see that my feeling was disappointment. I suppose at the end of his career his skills may not have been as sharp as they were earlier. This book was published in 2010 so that makes it the last but one book published before his death. It's a charming book which deals with a boy who had been abducted when he was three years old coming to terms with this knowledge following the death of his "adoptive parents" many years later. I admired the protagonist's tenacity (not to say luck!) in finding out what had happened all those years ago. A satisfying read.

[Jackie]

British writer Robert Barnard is a heavy weight in mystery fiction. He has a closet full of awards, including the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement in mystery writing.

In this book, a young man is aware of the fact that he is adopted. However, it's in his adoptive mother's dying days that he discovers both the name of his birth mother and the fact that he was not given up for adoption, but had been abducted when he was 3 years old. Vague memories begin to surface as he searches for his birth family and for the reason and circumstance of his abduction. This is a complicated story told in a very British way with focus on story elements rather than emotional content or graphic sensation. To borrow from the slang from across the pond, it's "Brilliant!".

[Jan]

In this novel, a young man (present day) discovers he is not who he thought he was. After discovering from his dying mother that he was adopted at age 3, we journey with him as he traces his history back to his birth parents and then back again to his adoptive parents and his adoptive grand-parents. We travel to Nazi Germany to meet a 3 year old Jewish boy who was placed on one of the 1939 Kindertransports. We travel to Sicily, 1n 1989 to meet a 3 year English old boy who was abducted from his parents, while they were holidaying in Italy.. The author does a good job of keeping us interested and motivated to read this story and it was a good read. However, I found it to be sad and depressing.

[April]

This was an interesting book of ideas, but fairly cold. I got the sense that Robert Barnard wanted to do a book to debunk the saccarine myth that if you go on a quest to find your birth parents, there will be a deep connection there. What Kit finds on his search involves Nazis, the Mafia, greed, narcissm, and all kinds of crime, both petty and monstrous. Barnard also examines love: filial for birth parents; filial for adoptive parents; deep, obsessive, romantic love; and marital love. Kit's adventures are interesting, but he never seems to feel any angst as he goes from interviewee to interviewee trying to uncover how he made it from Family 1 to Family 2.

[Amy Paget]

says "This is a real departure for Robert Barnard, the author of over 40 mysteries. I really enjoyed it." Kit Philipson has always felt like stranger in his family. An only child in Glasgow, Scotland, his mother was a teacher; his father, a journalist, escaped from Nazi Germany at the age of three on one of the 1939 Kindertransports. On her deathbed, Kit's mother tells him he was adopted and his birth name was Novello. A search of old newspaper files reveals that a three-year-old boy named Peter Novello was abducted from his parents' holiday hotel in Sicily. Now Kit sets out to rediscover his past, and may unearth dangerous secrets that dare never be revealed. -- Novelist

[Keilani Ludlow]

Clean author and interesting if somewhat convoluted plot. Some of the characters are down right nasty people but the main character and others are decent. I'm not a huge fan of mysteries, but it was interesting and I've checked out some others of his so it was good enough to get me to try another.

I'm adding to my review - his other books do have some swearing here and there. It really varies from book to book but the British do seem to like the F word a lot, and it gets used in some of the books.

[Sheila Beaumont]

This latest novel by one of the great British masters of suspense fiction, Robert Barnard, is neither an action thriller nor a murder mystery, but on the contrary consists mostly of dialogue. Nonetheless it's a gripping story that keeps the reader turning the pages, as a young man seeks to find out the secrets behind his abduction at the age of three while on holiday in Italy and his subsequent adoption by loving Scottish parents. Barnard's mysteries are always literate, beautifully told, and well worth reading.

[Bea]

I thought the book started off pretty good, but halfway through it bogged down. A man learns that he was adopted. While trying to find out about his real family, he finds that he had been abducted when he was three. The rest of the book is about him finding out how he came to his adoptive parents, both dead now, and why there wasn't more of an uproar in the media and elsewhere about his abduction. The story was interesting enough to finish the book, but the writing itself became kind of boring.

[Trista]

The premise of this book was more interesting than the story itself was. A young man learns he was abducted when he was three and decides to look into his disappearance and birth family. His adoptive father was on one of the last Kindertransport trains during the war. I was hoping these two "events" would be explained in more detail than they were. That being said, I did read the book to the end to find out the whole story.

[Judy]

The narrator is one-dimensional and seems to be more a way to move the plot along than a real person. We never learn anything about him to make him real, like how can he afford to fly all over seeking information about his background? In the end, the theme was how moral can a person be during war time and the details about the history of the period (WWII) in England, Germany and Italy are fascinating.

[Derk]

I recall liking the few books of Barnard's I've read in the past. This one was a disappointment. The hero didn't act like a 22 year old and the slowly developing plot seemed contrived. Even if I didn't mind those points, it's hard to see how the hero could realistically learned what he did about what happened, or how minor characters recalled minor conversations years in the past. It's 2 stars only because I finished it.

[Karen]

Kit Philipson was abducted as a three year old from a Leeds family and ended up as the adopted son of a couple in Glasgow. After the death of his adoptive parents he tries to find out what happened. A lot of the story is told in dialogue as Kit talks to different people who know parts of what happened.

[Robert]

I see this book gets a lot of poor reviews. But the story kept me wanting to finish so there's that.
I can only give less than three stars if I wish I'd never read the book.

Story seems formulaic: conceive a premise and protagonist then populate his world with caricatures. But the construction of the backstory was intriguing.

The ending is rubbish, but what else would you do?

Give it a miss.

[Gail]

Not one of Robert Barnard's best. Kit, who was abducted as a child, finds his birth family. He then searches for the reasons behind his abduction and how he ended up with his adopted family. I figured out part of the mystery early in the novel and found the entire story very slow-moving.

For a better story with a similar theme, read Barnard's Out of the Blackout.