The book that finally got me reading after the pandemic started and robbed me of my concentration - you can’t ignore this. In your face from the very start, it is the sort of novel that I could have happily gone on reading in perpetuity. It was just a shame it was such a thin volume. So many memorable bits - the meltdown on the aircraft right at the start (and I was right behind her), the fires in Australia and the impassive voice on the radio telling people it is “too late”, and - Oh God - the visit from Social Services. This is writing that knows how to create drama. Crank it up to max, and then find a way to crank it up a bit more. Got to be one of my top reads of the year. ( )

This was a read-in-a-day kind of book. With a starting line of 'It was the fault of airport security.' you know that something terrible is going to happen and my finger of blame was poised to point right from the start. As it happens, I actually chose the right person as, for once, I added up the clues and got to the right answer. That doesn't mean that the book was predictable in any way at all, there are plenty of surprises in store and I didn't know I was right until the very end.

Joanna didn't know Alistair was married when she first met him and when she did find out, it was too late. She was already in love with him and felt like the most important woman in his life. What Joanna doesn't know is that Alistair is good at using the right words in whatever situation demands it, his job is basically a fixer for politicians. Whatever bad press is coming their way, Alistair can spin it into a favourable light. Alistair and Joanna are on their way to Australia to fight for custody of Alistair's daughter, Chloe, from his first marriage with Alexandra. They are bringing with them their 9 week old son, Noah, who is fractious throughout the flight and the parents take turns looking after him. Joanna is understandably fraught and the other passengers remember her when she later appears on TV after Noah goes missing in Australia. With no sign of him, what really happened to baby Noah? Somebody knows and somebody is to blame, but all eyes turn to Joanna and she starts to question her own sanity.

Alistair, despite Noah's disappearance, is still planning to fight for custody of his 14 year old daughter, Chloe, and Joanna fears that he is planning to pin Noah's disappearance on his ex-wife, Alexandra. The two women have more in common than they think; Alistair his spun the words they want to hear around both of them. As Joanna picks up all the pieces of Alistair's history, she wonders just how important she is to him and to what lengths he will go to portray the desired appearance.

The Cry is an absolutely gripping story from Helen Fitzgerald, I was riveted from start to finish. We are able to read passages from 'now' when Joanna is on trial whilst trying to dig through what happened in the past. What exactly is Joanna on trial for? I didn't guess and I'm sure you won't guess too! I finished reading on the same day that I started, so that's a 5 star read all the way for me! I wouldn't hesitate to pick up another novel by Helen Fitzgerald and I'm overjoyed to see that I have Viral in my TBR pile. ( )

A really good paced family drama ( )

At the start of this book, Joanna, her partner Alistair and their 9 week old son Noah are at the airport waiting to fly from Scotland to Melbourne, where Alistair is from. The trip is part holiday, part opportunity for Alistair’s mother to meet her grandson and also in large part for Alistair to make a claim for custody of his 14 year old daughter Chloe, who lives in Australia with his first wife.

After landing in Australia, Noah goes missing; thereafter the story focusses on the resulting search and investigation into what happened to him. The parents, and in particular Joanna, come under close and mainly unkind public scrutiny with people speculating on Twitter, Facebook and in blog posts as to what has happened.

The story is told mainly from Joanna’s point of view (in the third person) and in Alistair’s ex-wife Alexandra’s point of view (in the first person). Alistair and Alexandra’s marriage broke up after his affair with Joanna and she is still bitter.

I enjoyed the book a lot and read it very quickly. I was surprised that the reader is told what happens to Noah straight away – as events unfold in fact – so whereas I was expecting a mystery where I would be kept in the dark as much as the characters, in fact it was more of a study of how people react and treat each other in the face of such a tragedy.

Although I raced through the book, it wasn’t without flaws – I felt that Joanna and Alexandra were fairly well drawn, but other than that, I only got the broadest sense of the rest of the characters. Alistair was almost a caricature, and deeply unlikeable.

Overall I would say that this book was satisfying at the time, but probably won’t stick in my memory for very long after I finished it. ( )

When we meet Joanna Lindsay, Alistair Robertson and their 9 week old son Noah they are experiencing a long, uncomfortable flight from Scotland, where they live, to Australia, where Alistair was born. Baby Noah cannot be settled and by flight’s end Joanna and her fellow passengers are frazzled, though Alistair has managed to get some sleep. During the couple’s drive from Melbourne airport to Alistair’s home town Noah goes missing which sparks a police investigation, a social media backlash against Joanna and trauma for Alistair’s ex-wife and teenage daughter.

After reading three of her books I’ve learned that Helen Fitzgerald can be extraordinarily cruel to the people she creates. Not ‘sadistic serial killer makes suits of human skin after lengthy torture sessions’ kind of cruel; rather she puts them through scenarios that are entirely believable in their ordinariness and totally horrific in their psychological impact. Here it is Joanna who is put through the wringer quite literally from the book’s very beginning to its bitter end and it is done with such skill and credibility that the reader cannot help but feel as if they too have lived through the woman’s harrowing experiences. For me this kind of tale – one where I can identify with the everyday situations in which the characters find themselves and can imagine the awfulness of the consequences when things go horribly wrong after a split second’s inattention or distraction – makes for a far more satisfying reading experience than the endless stream of serial killer tomes could ever do.

The structure of this novel works well too, offering several points of view though mainly that of Joanna and Alexandra (Alistair’s ex-wife). We get parts of the story from only one perspective and others are seen from both women’s viewpoint. Then there are the segments that show us what “the public” are thinking and saying through their tweets, blog posts and Facebook updates. As well as allowing an aspect of the story to be told inventively these snippets also offer some insight into the downside of this thoroughly modern phenomenon. The ease with which public opinions are made and changed based on rumour and ill-informed supposition is depicted very cleverly here.

THE CRY is an intelligent, surprising and totally compelling novel which I read in a single sitting (I’m not counting the several periods during which I put it down to make a nice, calming cup of tea as I soon hurried back on each such occasion). I won’t pretend it’s an easy read – especially for any new mums – but if you fancy an above average tale of psychological suspense during which you will often ponder how you would react (or have done) in the same circumstances then I highly recommend THE CRY.