ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – The Babysitter by Emma Curtis
The Babysitter by Emma Curtis will be published by Corvus on 12th October in paperback, and audiobook and is out today in eBook. My thanks to Kirsty Doole for the review copy.
Three women. Three secrets.
Claudia‘s life imploded ten years ago when she was convicted of the murder of her child. Now she has done the unthinkable and confessed to manslaughter in order to be granted parole – her only hope of finding out what really happened to Tilly.Sara is married to Joe, Claudia’s ex-husband, and they have a young child together. She finally has everything she ever wanted, but Claudia’s release threatens the perfect life she has created.
Anna was the babysitter who let Claudia and Joe down on day their daughter disappeared. Married with a child of her own, Claudia’s reappearance in her quiet cul-de-sac is an unwelcome surprise.
These three women are tied together in more ways than they realize. But only one of them is capable of killing.
Three women. Three secrets. The women are Claudia, Anna and Sara and yes, I can confirm that they have a large number of secrets.
As the book begins, Claudia is released from prison after admitting the manslaughter of her baby daughter, Tilly, ten years earlier. But Claudia only confessed so she would be released and be able to try and find out what really happened. Anna is the woman who should have been babysitting Tilly that fateful day, but who let Claudia and her husband, Joe, down. Sara is Joe’s new wife and they have a baby together and are living in the house where Claudia used to live with her family.
Claudia is determined to get to the bottom of Tilly’s disappearance and this makes her quite volatile and vulnerable. She was my favourite character and I was always pleased when the focus switched back to her, probably because she was in the process of uncovering and discovering and I enjoy that in a novel. I did sometimes get Sara and Anna a bit muddled up and found them quite similar whereas Claudia’s character really stood out.
I found The Babysitter to be a story that gripped me and kept me reading, wanting to know the truth of what happened to Tilly and who made it happen. It’s fast-paced and twisty with a plot that I found compelling. Claudia literally has nothing to lose in leaving no stone unturned whereas Anna and Sara have much to hide. I didn’t know who to believe or trust and that’s exactly what I want in a psychological thriller.
Emma Curtis was born in Brighton and now lives in London with her husband. After raising two children and working various jobs, her fascination with the darker side of domestic life inspired her to start writing psychological suspense thrillers. She has published five previous titles with Transworld: One Little Mistake, When I Find You, The Night You Left, Keep Her Quiet and Invite Me In.
