Book Review: Little Miracles by Giselle Green

 

Little Miracles

By Giselle Green

Published by Avon

£6.99

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘How can you let your child go when you believe he’s still alive?’ This is the question that runs through Little Miracles, the new book by Giselle Green.

 

When mum Julia, arrives in Spain with her fiancé and their toddler, to take on the awkward task of meet the parents, it is not long before things go wrong.

 

Hindered by the well meaning and religious Spanish family, an escape to the beach soon ends in tragedy after the toddler disappears.

 

The ensuing story develops with twists and turns from both parent’s perspective, whilst the mum’s desperate search for her child and the quest for truth is hampered by the family, fiancé and the deeply incompetent Spanish Authorities.

 

Green cleverly builds up to the moment of disappearance so we never lose sympathy for the mother. It’s a real could of happened to anybody scenario, and whether taken by a stranger or swept out to sea she can find no answer.

 

It is a tense, tear-jerking journey that makes a parent face their worst nightmare. The fiction is only made sadder by the fact that child abduction can and does happen to the very best of parents, and the synopsis for this book was submitted only months before the well-publicised disappearance of three-year-old Madeline McCann.

 

It’s a maddeningly frustrating read as the reader wills the child to be returned safe and well and as those crucial 24 hours pass by we know the chances of that are slipping away with the ticking of the clock.

 

Perhaps the moral of this story is about telling the truth, as so much of the tragedy stems from not being upfront within relationships.

 

The ultimate questions runs through the book as a strong undercurrent; When do you give up hope of seeing your child again? When do you begin to grieve? Without a body how do you move on?

 

Any media savvy parent whose child has been snatched abroad would be phoning the News of the World before making a call to the British Embassy, Scotland Yard and any and everyone else who would listen. Quite why determined mum Julia doesn’t do this is strange and one would like to hope that if this scenario were to happen in real life, as it does, there would be a crime unit in Great Britain that would immediately swing into action. 

 

Green takes us to a place we don’t really want to go to, but with hope and faith surely good will triumph over evil?

 

This is a cracking read that will emotionally involve any parent just slightly too much. Exploring the power and strength of love the ending provides more surprise revelations than an episode of Trisha. A must read.