Tummy Love
Melanie Henriksen is the UK’s most popular children’s cook, affectionately called the ‘kiddie cook’. One night she returns home after the launch of her new book to find her youngest child Elizabeth missing, along with the boy that her and her husband entrusted with looking after their two children. The story unfolds from there and touches upon the greatest fear of every parent and aspiring one. The family live a seemingly perfect existence up until this point and then their relationship with one another and those around them begins to unravel as the police search for their absent second born all under the media’s watchful eye.
I am not a mother but I felt the struggle throughout the novel of Melanie and her husband- I was with them every step of the way. Orton has keenly paced her writing. It begins with the devastating news that the baby is missing and throughout it eases off the pedal and then slams on the accelerator again up to its final pages.
Orton’s characters jump off the page and I felt like I was an observer to their tragedy, from attending the book launch with Melanie, to standing in the room where she lays, unable to get out of bed because she was is so grief stricken. I felt emotionally drained after reading this book I was so involved in their quest for the truth.
The book has many layers- with the missing baby case at the forefront- we also learn about all of the other characters in the periphery, making this novel far more complex than it first appears. Your investment in the characters is consequently far greater as you discover about their troubled pasts that have led to the point where the story begins.
I am not a big reader of thriller novels, however this has introduced me to a new genre I intend to continue reading in. It is rare that I read a book in such a short space of time- but I found that the hours just ran away with me, carried by the realistic and succinct dialogue.
Only in the last few pages did I realise how the book would end- so if you like to know what happens-resist the urge to take a sneaky peak at the back of the book as it’s well worth the wait.
This is Sarah Orton’s debut novel and I really don’t know where she goes from here. This first glimpse into her ability to tell a good yarn has set the bar for herself and other writers alike and I am extremely excited to read her next book. Orton has peaked as she has only just begun!