Book Review: ‘The Nowhere Child: A Novel’ By Christian White Is A Great Debut Novel

Author Christian White is a best-selling Australian author and has written screenplays. His debut American novel The Nowhere Child comes out here on Tuesday, January 22nd from Minotaur Books. It’s already an international best-seller and has sold screen rights to the story. It’s a page-turning thriller, with lots of twists and turns right up to the shocking reveal of the story. Christian White is a writer of the future to watch what he writes and releases.

Two year old Sammy Went went missing on April 3rd, 1990 in Manson, Kentucky and was never found. Her parents Molly and Jack and the police searched but never had a clue what happened to her. Now 26 years later in Melbourne, Australia Kimberly Leamy is about to get the surprise of her life. A man has approached her and thinks she is Sammy. She’s shocked and doesn’t believe it. The man does a secret DNA test and it proves that she is (or could very well be it’s 98.4%). When Kim confronts her step-father he all but confirms it (he never admits it but his look does).

Kim travels to the United States to meet her old/new family and try to learn what really happened back then. She soon learns it might be for the best she was taken all those years ago. Her real mother is a religious fanatic involved in a cult like church. The more she digs, the more she sees what this place is like and when she discovers the truth it could be the end of her life.

Told in then via flashbacks and now (real time) we learn all the backstory of the family, the search for little Sammy and what really happened back then and how and why she went missing. As I said above it leads to shocking reveals (and there’s a lot of them) you don’t see coming (and I am usually good at figuring these things out). Just a great novel you won’t be able to put down!