This fiction novel is the third in a series written by John Nicholl, a former Police Officer and Social Worker, who based the novel off of true stories he encountered while working in the field. I am super pumped to share my thoughts on this one with you as part of Boldwood Books and Rachel's Random Resources Book Tour!
This novel is narrated by Tony, a married father to one daughter who is going through the process of researching and writing about a sexual abuse and pedophilia ring that he was a victim of during childhood. Each chapter he interviews a different person connected to the crimes or to his own childhood including: police officers, a receptionist, other victims, other perpetrators, and his parents. As Tony dives further and further into his past and gains more troubling information about the crimes that were committed, he begins to turn to alcohol as a support. His drinking coupled with paranoia leads to troubles in his own family and causes his wife to leave town with their daughter. As the search continues Tony continues to reassure himself that he needs to find these answers but he begins to question how far he will go and at what cost?
From what I can tell, the previous two books were called The Doctor and The Wife referring to the man who committed the crimes against Tony, Dr. Gailbraith and his wife Cynthia. I was able to follow along with The Father without reading the two previous books in the series, but I think reading all three would be a good recommendation for anyone who is really interested in this series.
If I had to choose a book from just the titles, I'm not sure which one I would have chosen, maybe The Doctor? As it was about the man who perpetrated the crimes and his sadistic perspective would be intriguing. I probably would have chosen The Father once I realized that it was written from the perspective of the boy who was assaulted. You're probably wondering why I'm talking about this (obviously read them in order right?), well it is because I'm not sure that The Father was quite the book anyone might expect. First, I get that Tony is a father and going through his past is necessary in becoming the father that he needs to be to his young daughter, Olivia, but other than that, I'm not really sure why it is called The Father. Secondly, It doesn't really tell the story from Tony's perspective, in fact his perspective is only a very small part of the story. Instead, Tony is bringing in many different perspectives through his interviews. I'm not sure what title might make more sense, but I'm not 100% sold on this one. I think that perhaps if I had read The Doctor first this may have been a good conclusion to the trilogy, but reading The Father alone made me feel like I didn't get the story I was expecting to read.
I loved that the author really brought to the surface the ideas of grooming and the targeted, systematic process predators take when identifying victims, as well as the charisma required to fool the adults around them. These are concepts that I think all adults who may be in the position to protect children from abuse should be aware of. Throughout Tony's interviews there is a common thread of adults wishing they had listened to their gut and done something to prevent abuse from occurring but that the doctor had them fooled.
The writing style was alright. I found there was a lot of attempts to draw a story out of the people Tony was interviewing. This makes sense considering the background of the author, as a police officer or social worker, it often takes a long time to get the full story. That being said, as a reader, I felt a bit bored at times. I questioned "why are they stalling and talking about getting another coffee/beer? Just answer the question!". I think this is just a case of how sometimes what is realistic doesn't come off as interesting to the reader. I also felt like Tony spent a lot of time consoling his family members and other people he interviewed saying things like "you couldn't have known" and "I don't blame you". I'm glad that the character came to terms with his childhood abuse, but I felt like it went a bit too far at times. Maybe it was the repetitiveness, or maybe it was my own perspective of being an adult in a caring perspective and feeling frustrated for Tony's experiences as a child, but it didn't sit well with me after the first few times he reassured people who were supposed to protect him.
In all, I think this is a really interesting story and gives some really important information about child predators and to what extent parents, caregivers and public servants like police can really protect children. Despite being able to read the books out of order, I would recommend reading the first book first, even though I have not read it myself, as I think that it would probably be set up to start the story a little bit differently. I definitely want to check out more books by John Nicholl and thing it is really neat that he is using his inside perspective to write really interesting and important books. Thanks to Book and Tonic and Boldwood Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. As well as NetGalley and Rachel's Random Resources. I would also recommend stopping by some of the other tour spots to see what they thought about the book!
Want to know more about this author? Check out his Social Media info here:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nicholl06
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnnichollauthor/
Newsletter Sign Up: https://bit.ly/JohnNichollNews
Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/john-nicholl
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