It's been nearly 20 years since David Umber witnessed a
horrific crime from a café window. A little girl was
abducted by car as her brother, sister and nanny were
nearby. The sister chased after the car trying to reach her
sibling, only to be struck and killed by the vehicle. The
events of that day changed the lives of all involved and
set the stage for a troubling mystery.
In a twist of fate, Umber ends up marrying Sally, the nanny
caring for the children that frightful day. Sally
eventually commits suicide as the emotional turmoil of her
life is too much to overcome. The abduction case is then
brought back to life when mysterious correspondence is
mailed to Chief Inspector George Sharp that renews interest
in the case and sheds light into the dark corners of
Umber's life with Sally and what really happened that day
20 years ago.
Goddard weaves a mysterious tale of suspense and drama.
It's complex with characters and detail that can be a bit
tedious and overwhelming at times. However, the book is
nothing short of intriguing and rewarding to readers who
push past the details and reach the tale's end.
On a summer's day in 1981, a two-year-old girl, Tamsin
Hall, was abducted during a picnic at the famous
prehistoric site of Avebury in Wiltshire. Her seven-year-
old sister Miranda was knocked down and killed by the
abductor's van. The girls were in the care of their nanny,
Sally Wilkinson.
One of the witnesses to this tragic event was David Umber,
a Ph.D student who was waiting at the village pub to keep
an appointment with a man called Griffith who claimed he
could help Umber with his researches into the letters
of "Junius," the pseudonymous eighteenth century polemicist
who was his Ph.D subject. But Griffin failed to show up,
and Umber never heard from him again. The two-year-old,
Tamsin Hall, was never seen again either. The Hall family
fell apart under the strain. Sally Wilkinson, the nanny,
wound up living with Umber, whom she had met at the
inquiry. But she never recovered from the incident,
suffered increasingly from depression, and eventually
committed suicide.
In the spring of 2004, retired Chief Inspector George Sharp
receives a letter signed "Junius" reproaching him for
botching the 1981 investigation. Sharp confronts Umber,
whose explanation for being at the scene of the tragedy has
always seemed dubious. Obliged to accept Umber's denial of
authorship of the letter, he nonetheless forces him to join
in a search for the real culprit -- and hence the long-
concealed truth about what happened 23 years previously. It
is a quest that both will later regret having embarked
upon. Too late they come to understand that some mysteries
are better left unsolved.
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