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Mel McGrath

Give Me the Child: A gripping and suspenseful psychological thriller, with a breathtaking twist Paperback – 11 September 2018

by Mel McGrath (Author)

412 ratings

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THE TOP TEN BESTSELLER

’Dark, clever, terrifying’ Paula Hawkins

‘Gripping and moving’ Erin Kelly

‘You won’t want to eat, sleep or blink’ Tammy Cohen

Imagine your doorbell rings in the middle of the night.

You open the door to the police.

With them is your husband’s eleven-year-old love child. A daughter you never knew he had.

Her mother has been found dead in their south London flat.

She has nowhere else to go.

WOULD YOU TAKE HER IN?

Compulsive, dark and devastating, Give Me the Child is a uniquely skilful thriller with an unforgettable twist.
___

What readers are saying about Give Me the Child:

'Chilling and unnerving. I loved it.'

'A brilliantly crafted psychological thriller full of surprises, with a breathless climax.'

'A tension-filled family drama with plenty of twists and turns along the way, that will have you racing to the end.'

'A brilliant suspense-thriller. I highly recommend this book.'

‘I read this in one sitting. It's an excellent read, chilling and well written.'

'A psychological thriller with a difference and an evil twist, it kept me on the edge of my seat.'

'Excellent, a real page turner. All the more riveting as so very real.'

'I could not put it down…I loved it!!'

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Product details

Publisher : HQ; First edition (11 September 2018)
Language : English
Paperback : 384 pages
ISBN-10 : 0008300127
ISBN-13 : 978-0008300128
Dimensions : 2.79 x 12.95 x 19.81 cm

Customer Reviews:
412 ratings

Product description

Review

‘You won’t want to eat, sleep or blink’
Tammy Cohen

‘A triumph. A mesmerisingly written examination of desperation and evil’
Financial Times

‘Taut and compelling’
Good Housekeeping

‘Gripping and moving’
Erin Kelly

'A beautifully written and very unsettling read.'
Ann Cleeves

‘Hugely addictive and highly recommended’
Sarah Hilary

‘Completely unputdownable’
Lisa Hall

‘Utterly terrifying – it plays on every mother’s deepest fear’
Annabel Kantaria

‘Among my favourite books of the year. I loved it’
Mark Hill

‘Prepare to whizz through this addictive read… edge-of-your-seat stuff’
The Sun

‘A stimulating, powerful, entirely captivating and deliciously entertaining read’
Liz Robinson, Lovereading

‘I was totally blown away’
Crime Book Junkie

‘I actually thought within the first few chapters, that I had it sussed and knew exactly who did what and why – I was wrong’
A Cornish Mum

‘I was addicted’
Mumsnet

Book Description

A gripping and suspenseful psychological thriller, with a breathtaking twist

About the Author

Melanie McGrath is the author of the highly acclaimed ‘Motel Nirvana’, which won the 1996 John Llewellyn Rhys ‘Mail on Sunday’ prize for the best new British writer under 35, and the bestselling ‘Silvertown’. ‘Hopping’ is her fifth book. She lives and works in London.

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Customer reviews
4.3 out of 5
412 global ratings

5 star
61%

4 star
22%

3 star
8%

2 star
4%

1 star
4%

How are ratings calculated?
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.

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Top reviews from Australia

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Liam Frederick Ennis
Great read! Little predictable at times but also very entertaining!
Reviewed in Australia on 5 March 2019
Verified Purchase
When the police show up on the doorstep of Cat and Tom's house, little does Cat know but her life is about to change with the arrival of a child that turns out to be related to her.

It takes a little time for the book to get started but it has great character building and you really feel part of the story.

I found it really entertaining and enjoyable to read. Some interesting information about phycology and mental disorders, it is an interesting read with a thrilling plot.

I thought the ending was a little bit of a downer, but it was still very good.
Just hoped for a bigger shock I think as you can predict what happens.

Overall, definitely get this for a enjoyable read! I do highly recommend.
As usual, I rate very hard and only give out 5 Stars for books that blow my mind!

Similar feeling/read to "Girl on the Train".

So a solid 4 stars shows it's quality.
LFE.
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theryans3
Keeps you guessing
Reviewed in Australia on 21 February 2018
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I enjoyed this book immensely. Turning page after page late into the night. McGrath's characters are well developed and dark. The ending was not what I expected at all.
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Donna
Wow!
Reviewed in Australia on 28 February 2018
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I could not put this book down from start to finish. What an incredible writer. I look forward to anything else she publishes.
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C Knight
Chilling psychological thriller
Reviewed in Australia on 28 July 2017
Just imagine it’s the middle of the night, the house is all quiet with everyone asleep in bed and there is a knock at the door. Stood there are police officers with a young girl. A young girl whose father is the father of your own child, a young girl you knew nothing about. What’s more you are now expected to take care of this young girl….what could possibly go wrong?

I was totally blown away by this fantastic psychological thriller from Mel McGrath. I love a good psychological thriller so I’m always on the look out for a new author to try. The author’s writing drew me in, I was total immersed in Cat’s world. I wanted to devour the book but savour it at the same time.

The more I read, the more I questioned the reliability of Cat – you’d expect a child psychologist to be a reasonably reliable narrator. But as her world start to come crashing down around her and give the fact she suffered mentally whilst pregnant to the extent that she had to be placed into care for her own safety, I began to wonder.

There are two children who really haunted me as I read this. Joshua – he’s a chilling child, I actually felt a tightening of my chest as I read certain sections about him. It is quite upsetting as a mother to think that there are children, not just people under the age of 18 but children at primary school who can be diagnosed with such extreme personalities. And then there is Ruby, the young girl who is airdropped into Cat’s life without any warning. She’s a dark child – is she hiding something, is she someone not to be trusted? I really did not know what to make of her. The extent of the darkness of these two children can only be found by reading right to the end.

I found the cover to this novel very intriguing at first, such a simple image of an escalator which makes perfect sense as the story builds to its climax.

I highly recommend this psychological thriller if you like them dark and gripping!
Many thanks to HQ and Netgalley for my advanced copy of Give Me the Child. I’m looking forward to what Mel McGrath has to offer next!
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5 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer
Keeps you on your toes!
Reviewed in Australia on 28 September 2017
If you a looking for a good, modern thriller to keep you on your toes, then I would highly recommend this one!

Mel McGrath keeps you guessing at every turn. When you think you know what is going to happen, she throws a surprise. She tells the story of a young girl showing up on a families doorstep, shocking the family with a secret that may well tear them apart. What follows is a series of odd and unnerving events.

Highly recommend! It is so well written and I honestly couldn’t put it down until I knew what happened!
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Top reviews from other countries

Spicewalker
Quite a chilling and unnerving tale at times - loved it
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 November 2017
Verified Purchase
If ever there was a book which encapsulates all the things I find most terrifying and completely hideous about small children, then it may well be this one. Yikes. Forget demonic possession or telekinesis or all of those old tricks which have been used in novels of yester-year to create horrific children. They have nothing on the malevolence which is portrayed in some of the children within Give Me The Child. I don’t think there is anything more chilling than a child who simply appears to lack empathy, or one who is so manipulative, controlling and … well just plain horrid. That is exactly what you are faced with in this book, but you will need to decide if this is due to nature or nurture. And while you make that decision, you’ll be taken on a journey that will make you angry, make you sad and leave you with such nervous tension you’ll need a day or two to recover.

Faced with an unexpected arrival in the middle of the night, Cat Lupo soon finds how quickly things can change. She has far from the perfect life, but she is happy. Wife and mother, she is content in her career, running a unit which helps young children with psychological issues. And so helping her husbands illegitimate child, Ruby Winter, should be a walk in the park. Shouldn’t it? If only. Ruby Winter is a damaged child who is faced with the sudden death of her mother and being thrust into a family she never knew and who don’t know her. And she isn’t the kind of child who takes kindly to having a new Stepmother, be they wicked or kind …

Man, this book. I listened to the audio version on one of my many trips down South and while I don’t regret a single minute of it, I’m not entirely sure it was a wise decision. I have no recollection of the journey at all, I was so absorbed in what was happening in the book, and when you are the one in charge of the car … well. Thankfully I’m a very good driver! There were so many moments when I wanted to shout at the stereo, where I could feel my hands tightening around the wheel, and where I just felt so on edge at what I was listening to that I must have looked a right loon to anyone driving past me. In fairness, this is nothing new, but I do remember being particularly incensed at one or two places in the story, that I am sure I must have looked like I was suffering with extreme road rage. Again, probably nothing new there either…

I really felt the tension rising as the story progressed. Felt Cat’s frustration as those around her failed to see what she was seeing. How they used her past against her to create doubt and undermine her professional opinions. Trying to make her look unreliable. I was angry for her. Each time those who should have supported her let her down, I wanted to shout at the stereo, a sign of a really good and really relatable character. Don’t get me wrong, Cat is far from perfect, but the ways in which she is treated really got under my skin. And yet … there was always this lingering doubt, just a small amount, that perhaps she wasn’t as I expected her to be. The story is, after all, told in her voice, and with the audio version it creates an even more compelling argument that she is the only one of sound mind. But is she? Or is her past starting to adversely affect her present too? You’ll have to read to find out.

I can’t say I was completely blindsided by the betrayals which occurred in the book, because I don’t think I was. You could see it building, see the people starting to take sides. What I didn’t know, much like Cat, was why. Why did the people Cat thought she could love and trust let her down so quickly and so often? I could understand ambition and greed acting as motivators for some, but the motivation of others was more personal and far more shocking and the ending was entirely unexpected. There are scenes throughout which will have your heart in your mouth, especially where Cat’s daughter, Freya, disappears. But just who is behind it? That one got me. I saw part of it coming and proceeded with utmost caution. But just as I thought I knew I was hit from behind like a Cortina verses a Juggernaut. Think I still may have a touch of whiplash. Brilliant. And also very tragic. A sad and poignant moment for a very troubled soul.

This book will make you smile, make you gasp, make you angry and make you nod with approval. Does justice get served at the very end? You know what? To my mind it does. The ending does leave things somewhat open, so if you want an absolute resolution and a neat conclusion, you don’t strictly get that here. However, the implication is clear and there is a kind of satisfaction from what comes to pass. A brilliant thriller.
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Sharon
Domestic Noir
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 September 2017
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You know it's never going to be good news when you get a knock on your door in the middle of the night so little does our main protagonist Cat know that this will be the first in a series of events that will have her questioning everything. Does she really know the man she married? What other secrets hasn't her husband Tom told her and is her daughter Freya safe?

Give Me the Child was a gripping read right from the first page, from the moment of Ruby's arrival you could sense that nothing would ever be the same again for all concerned. As a specialist working in the field of disturbed and dangerous children Cat is used to spotting triggers and with this girl who is brought into her own home there are plenty of red flags that make her worry about the safety of those around her.

Cat was certainly no reliable narrator as she had her own fair share of dark secrets and issues that had others questioning whether her own psychosis/paranoia was returning which made it all the more harder for her to get others to believe her. After all who could honestly believe that an eleven year old child could be dangerous and put lives at risk.

As for Tom he seemed liked the the perfect loving husband and father at first, a bit of a fantasist thinking he was soon going to invent and launch the next big game, but the more the story progressed the more you soon discovered that nothing was as straight forward with him. He too had his own deeply hidden secrets and would do anything to prevent the truth from being revealed.

Give Me the Child fits perfectly into the domestic noir category as it's a tension filled family drama with plenty of twists and turns along the way that will have you racing to the end trying to see how it all plays out. I've never read anything by Mel McGrath before but I'm now a fan and will be keeping an eye out with interest as to what she has in store for us readers next.
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4 people found this helpful
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RK
Good in Theory
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 April 2018
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I am a little torn about this book. I liked the idea of the storyline, but found the writing repetitive and disorganised in that information seemed to be squeezed in retrospectively. I also found the main character frustrating as she was so weak initially. Having said that I did read the whole book, I'm just not 100% sure I'd recommend it.
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4 people found this helpful
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Beverley J
I finished it, but found it just a little disappointing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 December 2017
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I really wanted to like this book, but felt that there were gaps in the story. It started when Ruby used the 'f-word' and nothing was said. If I was Cat I would immediately have been talking to Tom about it and how to deal with it (not in front of a Ruby of course). Then the connection with Joshua Barron's was just a bit too far fetched-this was too convenient and felt forced. There was never any link before with Joshua, Ruby and Freya so why would this happen just when the plot needed it. I would look elsewhere for a thriller and wouldn't recommend it.
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5 people found this helpful
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Paula
A great holiday read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 June 2020
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Unusually I whizzed through this book in a couple of days it has a good plot and I warmed to the main character, wanting it all to work out for her and for the villain of the plot to get comeuppance! As with any fictional book there’s a couple of leads that are a little far fetched but just go with it, this is definitely a book I will pass on to my friend ps to enjoy.
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