The Child Garden

by Catriona McPherson

First published 2015

Gloria Harkness lives beside what was once Eden, an alternative school that closed after a student killed herself. The building now houses a care facility where Gloria's son lives. She visits him daily, finding joy and heartbreak in equal measure. When a friend from her past appears at her door, Gloria welcomes him inside. He tells her a former Eden student has been following him and has arranged to meet him where the suicide happened. But then the dead start speaking to Gloria. They tell her the death was not suicide but murder. Gloria finds herself pulled into a mystery that grows more dangerous by the day. Her deep loneliness drives her forward. Her fierce loyalty to old friends compels her to help. Most of all, her overwhelming love for her son makes her willing to risk everything. She must uncover a secret that someone has kept hidden for years, even as that secret threatens to destroy the life she has built around caring for her child.

Genres: mystery, contemporary, thriller, family-drama

Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking

Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator

Setting: Eden

Period: contemporary

293 pages · Hardcover · Midnight Ink

Content warnings: mental-illness, suicide

More by Catriona McPherson

Readers who liked The Child Garden also liked

View on Siftivo