#BlogTour: The Vanished Child by M. J Lee @WriterMJLee @rararesources

Book Synopsis:

What would you do if you discovered you had a brother you never knew existed?

On her deathbed, Freda Duckworth confesses to giving birth to an illegitimate child in 1944 and temporarily placing him in a children’s home. She returned later but he had vanished.

What happened to the child? Why did he disappear? Where did he go?

Jayne Sinclair, genealogical investigator, is faced with lies, secrets, and one of the most shameful episodes in recent history as she attempts to uncover the truth.

Can she find the vanished child?

This book is the fourth in the Jayne Sincalir Genealogical Mystery series, but can be read as a stand alone novel.

Every childhood lasts a lifetime.

My Review:

The Vanished Child is an absolutely fantastic piece of historical fiction that manages to be both heartbreaking and heart warming at the same time.

The story is told from two points of view, one from 2017 follows Jayne trying to help her stepmother try to find her lost brother while the other follows her brother Harry in 1951 and his experience as a child migrant to Australia.  Although I found both stories interesting I did prefer Harry’s story as although I had heard of the awful situation that the migrants found themselves in I didn’t know much about what happened.  The fact that this story is based on actual events makes for hard reading at times and I definetly had tears in my eyes reading about what happened to them.  How anyone could have treated children that way is mind boggling. I hoped they realised and felt sorry about what they had done in years to come.

Harry was also my favourite character as he seemed such a lovely, cheeky boy at first who seemed able to get some fun out of his situation.  It was quite heartbreaking to read about his experiences and the problems he had because of them.  I really wished I could have given him a hug or rushed in and adopted him myself and his feelings were quite palpable at times.

I found it fascinating to read more about how a genealogist works and how they manage to find long lost relatives.  It’s something I really want to do when I get the time as Id love to discover more about my family.

Huge thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for my copy of this book and for inviting me onto the blog tour.  If you like dual timeline stories based on real facts that makes you cry and laugh you need to read this book.

About The Author:

Martin has spent most of his adult life writing in one form or another. As a University researcher in history, he wrote pages of notes on reams of obscure topics. As a social worker with Vietnamese refugees, he wrote memoranda. And, as the creative director of an advertising agency, he has written print and press ads, tv commercials, short films and innumerable backs of cornflake packets and hotel websites.