Good elements in this, though the creepiness of a religious sect with a way of worship that involves handling live snakes is what ultimately stays with you. The poor bloody snakes.
Two year old Sammy Went is taken from her home in Kentucky USA. Twenty eight years later her brother tracks her down in Melbourne, though the process of how he did so remains a mystery. Sammy’s reunion in the USA with her damaged biological family members is anything but fulfilling. The reason she was taken, and kept, in the first place doesn’t quite ring true. Would the perpetrator (note I’m desperately trying not to give away the plot here) really be that committed to keeping her? This person didn’t make the decision to take her in the first place. Why not just drop her off back near home after all that’s happened?
Some of the characters are excellently drawn, especially Sheriff Chester Ellis, but we don’t get much of a feeling for who Sammy/Kim is now and as such it is difficult to feel for her. It also defies belief that the person involved in her diasappearance wouldn’t just come clean as soon as Sammy/Kim is initially contacted by her brother. The writing is competent but you may get to the end, as I did, and think “What was the point of all that?” No doubt Christian White will write again and do better but as far as debut novels go, I much preferred The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan.
