The Guilty One: The stunning Richard & Judy Book Club pick

Description

A little boy was found dead in a children's playground. . . Daniel Hunter has spent years defending lost causes as a solicitor in London. But his life changes when he is introduced to Sebastian, an eleven-year-old accused of murdering an innocent young boy. As he plunges into the muddy depths of Sebastian's troubled home life, Daniel thinks back to his own childhood in foster care - and to Minnie, the woman whose love saved him, until she, too, betrayed him so badly that he cut her out of his life. But what crime did Minnie commit that made Daniel disregard her for fifteen years? And will Daniel's identification with a child on trial for murder make him question everything he ever believed in?

Lisa Ballantyne was born in Armadale, West Lothian, Scotland and was educated at Armadale Academy and University of St Andrews. She spent most of her twenties working and living in China, before returning to the UK in 2002, to work in Higher Education. She lives in Glasgow; this is her first novel.

[a] moving, insightful debut . . . It's easy to see why this caused such a stir at Frankfurt last year. If it isn't this year's Before I Go To Sleep, I'll eat my laptop - The Guardian One of the most readable, emotionally intense novels of the year, and a debut one at that. Lisa Ballantyne pulls off the key writer's trick of getting us to care about the characters; by the end of the first chapter, you will be comprehensively on the hook - Richard from Richard and Judy?s Book Club, Autumn 2012 Pick This is an outstanding work of fiction, and the real crime would have been if the talent of Lisa Ballantyne had never been discovered - Daily Record Thought provoking, brave and challenging, this book is an unsettling and compulsive read - Rosamund Lupton, bestselling author of Sister and Afterwards Fast-paced and emotionally charged, we were tearing through it well into the night. Keep a tissue handy - you'll be a wreck by the end - Emerald Street A mature, gripping book you'll be desperate to tell your friends about - Big Issue (Scotland) The Guilty One will touch your heart even as it leaves you unsettled - Hallie Ephron, author of There Was an Old Woman