A solid crime novel set in Scarborough

• Book: The Other Child
• Location: London, Scarborough
• Author: Charlotte Link

Review Author: Isabella Orff

I certainly read the book from beginning to end and wanted to know the outcome. The story brings together a whole bunch of unlikely characters, who in many ways are misfits – and many of the women see themselves as victims in society. That said, the characters each stand out and have their part to play,with a few red herrings along the way.
On reflection, the second killing kept everything together, but I am really struggling to remember who killed the first person? Who was it? Was I not paying attention? Did I turn pages instead of one? The rather weak police officers, Almond and Reek, certainly had someone in their sights for this killing, but did it ever get confirmed? Oh well…. Which leads me to some of the overt devices that for me, didn’t work so well. The hypotheses about the possible perpetrator are examined and re-examined to death (to keep the reader up to speed it would seem) which gets a little tedious, and some bandying about of psychological terms didn’t really add anything. There is a dialogue roughly a good 100 pages in that I found myself reading and then rereading in disbelief, which, for me, gave away the perpetrator (I don’t think I am giving anything away here). And I am not the kind of reader who needs to work out whodunnit, I prefer to just bowl along and see what happens.

Some of the translation from German to English isn’t as smooth as it could be – in UK we don’t “unpack” presents at Christmas, we open them or unwrap them. So, overall the translation generally held up well, but some turns of phrase popped up that were a bit odd. But my question is: how come this hugely popular German author set her story in Scarborough? Now that IS intriguing!!

It is set in present day Scarborough, goes back to London during World War II and there is a brief sortie to Robin Hood’s Bay. It is truly evocative of North Yorkshire and I think it would have been a real treat to read this in location – or if I knew Scarborough more than just a day visit!

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