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Ruth Dugdall

Humber Boy B: Shocking. Page-Turning. Intelligent. Psychological Thriller Series with Cate Austin: 3 Paperback – 13 March 2015

by Ruth Dugdall (Author)

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FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER THE WOMAN BEFORE ME

'Superbly written... The plot twists and turns on the way to a nail-biting finale. A compelling read.' The Sun

'The eponymous young adult Ben is drawn with unflinching honesty by a writer with a masterful grasp of nuance and contradiction. Highly recommended.' The Guardian

A blur in the sky, a brick no, a trainer, red falls to the water... There seems to be a scuffle... a hand grabbing at the dangling child. Then, with the awfulness of inevitability, the hanging child drops, gravity takes him.

A child is killed after falling from the Humber Bridge. Despite fleeing the scene, two young brothers are found guilty and sent to prison. Upon their release they are granted one privilege only, their anonymity.

Probation officer Cate Austin is responsible for Humber Boy B's reintegration into society. But the general public's anger is steadily growing, and those around her are wondering if the secret of his identity is one he actually deserves to keep.

Cate's loyalty is challenged when she begins to discover the truth of the crime. She must ask herself if a child is capable of premeditated murder. Or is there a greater evil at play?

A clever, sophisticated, psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, S.J. Watson, B A Paris and Sophie Hannah

What Reviewers and Readers Say:

'Twisty, profound and completely convincing, it grips the reader by the heart. Unputdownable.' Erin Kelly

'Sad, chilling and horrifying, Humber Boy B is extraordinary.' Elizabeth Forbes

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This item:Humber Boy B: Shocking. Page-Turning. Intelligent. Psychological Thriller Series with Cate Austin: 3 by Ruth Dugdall Paperback $26.04
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Product details

ASIN : 1910394599
Publisher : Legend Press Ltd (13 March 2015)
Language : English
Paperback : 352 pages
ISBN-10 : 9781910394595
ISBN-13 : 978-1910394595
Dimensions : 12.9 x 2.79 x 19.81 cm

Customer Reviews:
121 ratings

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Review

"Ruth Dugdall's novels are intelligent and gripping, with a sophisticated psychological sensibility. She is a huge talent." ←Sophie Hannah, author, The Monogram Murders

"Compelling reading for those as invested inthe 'why-' as much as they are the 'whodunnit.'" --blogcritics.org, 1/30/2016

About the Author

Ruth has years of experience working with children who have been convicted of murder, having been based at one of the UK's 3 prisons that specialise in this area. Ruth's writing is heavily influenced by her professional background, providing authenticity and credibility to the crime genre.

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louise Little

Don't miss this book

Reviewed in Australia on 16 January 2018

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This is a brilliant read, had me hooked all the way through. The book deals very sensitively with murder committed by a child, how it affects the child and all the people involved in his life.Written from all the view points of the main protagonists ,it switches from one person to the next ,. Normally this can be very confusing but in the book it really worked.This book really questions what it is to be human,our complexities and can a child really be evil? This author has blown me away.

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Lea811

5 stars!!

Reviewed in Australia on 11 September 2015

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I loved this book!! Great storyline and characters. The ending was WOW! I have pre-ordered the author's next book. That's how much I loved this book!! 5 very worthy stars. (Life's too short to read mediocre - get this one and don't put it down!!)

One person found this helpful

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helen crosswell

Great read

Reviewed in Australia on 25 February 2018

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good solid story with interweaving characters and plots really enjoyed the strong ending. Recommend this book and keen to read more from this author.

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POWERFUL, DISTURBING AND THOUGHT PROVOKING

Reviewed in Australia on 15 June 2017

Humber Boy B by Ruth Dugdall was disturbing and complex, but an absolutely entralling psychological/crime thriller.
The retrospective scenario was a somewhat untouchable subject, but it was realistically presented - a child murder by a child murderer. Two young brothers were involved in the death of 10 year old Noah who was pushed to his death into the Humber River. During the trial, the brothers were given the impersonal labels of Humber Boy A and B. Only Humber Boy B was convicted. Immediately, the brain cells go into overdrive with so many questions and Ruth's excellent writing really draws you in.
Now, an eighteen year old, HBB (Ben) is released from custody after serving eight years. Cate Austin is the probation officer assigned to his case. Ben now takes on a new identity and he must reside anonymously within a community some distance away from where the crime was committed.
The characters in HBB are richly developed. Cate is strong, dedicated, loyal, smart and resilient. Ben is damaged, barely an adult and ill prepared for a new life in society. As a reader, I invested emotionally in Cate and even Ben due to Ruth's deep and sympathetic portrayals. There are many secondary characters who add enormously to the story, too.
The plot is busy, but not overly crowded. The beginning is a challenge to follow, as readers must persevere through snippets of information until things get rolling. The time line of events prove to have far reaching consequences for a wide group of people, as well as evoking high levels of emotion and drawing out strong opinions and actions. The story includes two POVs and, topically, a Facebook page and the reveals are gradual. The circumstances open up challenging social issues for readers to ponder and I found I needed to take time out to reflect and digest my thoughts and feelings.
When the book finally reached the conclusion, it continued to hold me spellbound and while some elements were a little predictable, it certainly had a powerful and impactful twist or two. I highly recommend this brilliant book to readers who enjoy this genre and as Ruth Dugdall was a probationary officer once, the book had an authentic feel.

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‘His body is like a starfish as it falls, limbs curling in then stretching wide.’

Reviewed in Australia on 16 October 2017

Noah, a ten-year-old boy, is killed after falling from the Humber Bridge in the UK. Two brothers were seen fleeing the scene. The brothers are charged. The older of the brothers, Adam, aged 14 is released after four years. The younger brother, ‘Ben’ aged 10, is found guilty of Noah’s murder and serves eight years.

Aged 18 and renamed Ben, ‘Humber Boy B’ is released into the community. Ben’s release causes uproar: Noah’s mother, Jessica, uses social media to try to track Ben down and others threaten retaliation. Ben’s probation officer, Cate Austin, together with others is charged with keeping him safe.

So, Ben is released into a community away from his family. He needs to learn to negotiate a world which has changed in eight years, and he has no idea who he can trust.

What really happened on the Humber Bridge eight years earlier? And why is Ben, the younger of the two brothers, considered more responsible for Noah’s murder than his older brother? Why was Noah with Ben and Adam in the first place?

As the story unfolds, shifting between the day of Noah’s murder and the present, we learn of Ben’s childhood, of his dysfunctional family. Did Ben ever have a chance? An indifferent alcohol-dependent mother, a stepfather who detests the sight of him. But this is only a small part of the story.

Ben is not supposed to have any contact with his mother or brother, but he’s lonely and sends his mother a card. Gradually he settles into a rhythm: he learns how to shop (but not how to cook), he’s found a job, the man he works with takes a friendly interest in him. I start to believe that Ben may be able to make a new, successful life.

But the past never lets Ben go.

There are several twists in this story, and an ending that I found incredibly sad. I kept wondering how I would react if Noah was my son. Would I, like Jessica, want to try to find answers? Could I abandon Ben, as his own family did? So many questions to consider, no satisfactory answers.

I understand that this is the third of Ruth Dugdall’s novels to feature Cate Austin. I’ve made a note to seek out the first two. This is a powerful, well-written novel.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

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NAME_NOT_RETURNED

Brilliant

Reviewed in Australia on 25 November 2018

New author to me and downloaded the next book and starting straight away, excellent read, good characters and finale:) c

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Top reviews from other countries

Bagpuss84

Another excellent book - the third in the Cate Austin Series

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 August 2017

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If this book were not written by Ruth Dugdall (who was a probation officer herself and having read and thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in the Cate Austin series) I would have shied away from it due to the subject matter. Reading the synopsis I felt it was just too similar to the murder of James Bulger and I would find it too upsetting (even though this is of course a work of fiction). Ruth does mention James when probation officer Cate is assigned the case of 'Ben' who has spent eight years in prison for the murder of a child.
Cate, is given the job of supervising Ben upon his release. The story is written from two sides (as in Ruth's other books) from the point of view of Cate and Ben. As the story unfolds we find out what led to the events and the death of the young girl. Alongside this is the supervision by Cate of Ben trying to reintegrate him back into a society he cannot recognise since his incarceration at such a young age.
As usual Cate goes above and beyond her job in getting justice.
Ruth deals with the topic very well and it is never overly graphic nor sensationalised which was one of my concerns when reading the synopsis of this book.
An excellent read, although at times quite heart wrenching due to the subject matter.

2 people found this helpful

Bartonian

I really enjoyed the book and the way it interleaved the events ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 December 2015

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I live close to the Humber Bridge and bought the book out of curiosity for a story set in part where I live. I drive across the bridge all the time and I go running (well okay jogging) across several times a week. I could have been one of the joggers in the story!

I really enjoyed the book and the way it interleaved the events of eight years ago with events set in the present made it quite fast-paced and gripping towards the end.

There can't be all that many books where the heroine (for want of a better word) is a probation officer and that gave an insight into a world where most of us don't go and introduces us to some unusual and damaged characters.

Along with some of the other commentators I was disappointed with the errors in local geography, terminology and language. The language used by the "Northerners" was a characterized "Yorkshire" which didn't ring true. Hull people have a distinctive accent but they don't go about saying "Ay up lad" and use the term "brass" to refer to money. These expressions stem from a different area of Yorkshire altogether!

Do the kids in the story live in Bransholme or do they live in Gypsyville? These two areas are miles apart. They attend Bransholme Primary school so that suggests they live in Bransholme. But Bransholme is miles away from the Humber Bridge to the North East of the city and it is a stretch of the imagination that these penniless kids would want to go there or could get there easily.

The description of the vicinity of the Bridge itself didn't gel for me. Its stretching things to say there is a beach and it is very very rare for anyone to swim or even paddle in the Humber. I wouldn't recommend it!

The scale and size of this incredible Bridge didn't really come across either. If the kids had gone into the middle of the Bridge they would have looked like little dots from the foreshore where Roger Palmer was fishing. If he had wanted to get up to the walkway where the action was taking place it would have needed a long climb up through the park to the point where he could access the walkway. It would probably have taken him at least twenty minutes during which time the walkway would have been out of his view. He would never have asked himself whether there was time for him to get up there. It was never a question.

The police and prosecution procedures in relation to Cate and Liz' father lacked credibility as well. The police would not have been happy with photocopies of father's letters and would have retained the originals as evidence. Liz wanted Cate to be a witness as if she had conduct of the case. The police would have spoken to her already if they had investigated and a decision had been made to prosecute so it would not have been the surprise Liz made it to be. It is not correct for Liz to speak of "her legal team" as if she has a team of lawyers advising her. The prosecution is carried out by The Crown, it is not a private matter.

It is a shame about these points of accuracy. They spoil an otherwise good book and for the most part they were avoidable. In the end I was willing to forgive them because it is a well written book and I am sufficiently interested in Cate to read the next one.

5 people found this helpful

Ms GeeGee

Thought Provoking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 September 2017

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Amazing how, when you see things from a different side, your attitude towards the 'evil' character changes. A sad story which obviously has touches of James Bulger's murder and the anonymity given to his killers, if the facts are correct and I don't doubt they are, being given a new identity isn't all it's cracked up to be, constantly worried somebody will recognise you, not being worldly enough to know where to buy basic food items and how to converse with others outside the confines of a prison cell, it isn't what the public see as being set-up for life and having it easy. The writing style was good although I'm unsure why the sister story line was introduced as it detracted from the main plot and didn't come to a conclusion anyway so this was an unwanted distraction. In all I give this book 4 stars as I felt empathy with 'Ben' and how his upbringing brought about the sad circumstances of what happened on the fateful day of the murder.

Mrs Mad Mac

Made me feel think

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 August 2016

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I found this to be an excellent read. I couldn't put it down and took any chance I got to just read abit more. I hadn't read any of Ruth Dugdalls previous books but will definitely be doing so now. Overall premise of the book, children killing a younger child and the similarities to real life horrific past events is to be honest is what hooked me as I've always had an interest in the real event as I'm sure many mothers have. I did worry about reading something fictional which was so directly linked to real life, and why I would want to read it. But it i'm glad I did as it made me think about things in a completely different way. Always a good read when I question myself and my beliefs. For anyone who enjoyed this read may also like Random Acts of Unkindness by Jacqueline Ward.

2 people found this helpful

EllenD

I liked Cate, the probation officer

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 February 2017

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A thought provoking read! I've had this on my kindle for quite a while and after hearing Ruth speak at an event I found it out. This is the first book I have read from this author and worked as a standalone. You can't help but feel sorry for the main character Ben as he is released from prison for a murder committed when he was ten years old. The story is told from various perspectives and flits between the day of the murder and Ben's release.

I liked Cate, the probation officer, and her battle to do what's best for Ben even when those around were quick to judge him and possibly put him in danger.

I look forward to reading more of Ruth's books.

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