First published 2003
Alan Carmichael has spent his career pulling children from dangerous homes. Now, approaching retirement, he takes on one final case. A teenager needs help escaping an abusive parent, and Alan knows how to make people disappear. He moves the boy to safety, using methods perfected over years of similar rescues. But once the operation succeeds, something feels different. Alan finds himself questioning whether he made the right choice. The certainty that guided him through countless interventions begins to crack. Did this teenager really need saving? Was the parent truly abusive, or did Alan misread the situation? The doubt spreads through his mind like poison. Every decision he made during the rescue comes under scrutiny. The boy remains hidden, but Alan cannot hide from his growing uncertainty about the mission that was supposed to be his last.
Genres: abuse, suspense, mystery, crime, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: doubt, moral-ambiguity, unreliable-narrator
Hardcover · Chivers
Content warnings: abuse, child-abuse