Book #21 The Girl in the Red Coat

The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am emotionally drained after reading The Girl in the Red Coat. I couldn't wait to finish it. For all the wrong reasons. I wanted it to be over; to move on to something else. Compelled to finish and at times wondering why. Another plot about an abducted child - 8 year old Carmel. Thought to be endowed with the gift of healing. Snatched from under her mother's nose, Beth, by a man who professes to be her grandfather, but isn't, and later identified as a religious fanatic, who sees in Carmel a means to make money using her "special gift". Some of the plot is preposterous. Too many unanswered questions. Snatched from Norfolk, a few chapters later, we find Carmel in the USA. An eight year old girl, no passport, smuggled into America through the most rigorous immigration process I know and she has no memory of how she got there. And the author doesn't tell us.

I am not going to dwell further on the plot; other reviewers have done that, but for me it gets bogged down in the middle. The constant switching between chapters from the voice of Carmel to the voice of the desperate mother Beth. Compelling at first, tiresome at last. I found myself saying - good grief, how much longer? And yet, for all that, I had to finish it quickly. The ending, after the prolonged story line, came all too quickly, in a matter of ten pages or so and still left much unanswered.

This is probably a good read to get you through a long flight but it left me feeling rather disappointed, having read so much hype about this book, shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards.

View all my reviews