Book Reviews by Title

This is a mystery book telling the story of a sixteen-month-old who was found dead in a pond near his home. What was presumably assumed as an accidental drowning comes out to be much more than what is seen on the surface. The combination of a baby with Down syndrome, a genetic disorder causing developmental delay and physical disabilities, and a mother whose lack of interest in trying to recall what happened when the accident occurred alerts the authorities to believe that there is something more to this case than meets the eye. I should have realized when I first read the synopsis of this story on how predictable the outcome of the mystery was. However, I decided to give the book a chance thinking small details something mystery books rely on to portray the perspective of the case at hand would allow me to immerse myself into the story. Disappointingly, that was no where near the case. The book mainly relied on a detective's intuition and one forensics report to sum up the whole case. The books also tried to dive into the emotional aspects of parents trying to cope with a child who has Down syndrome but I use the word tried because I couldn't feel any emotional connection with the charaters other than the fact that the story felt like a news report of the hardships faced raising a child with physical and mental handicaps, and all I could do was feel bad for that family. What left me feeling like this book was unfinished was that it finished at the climax where the detectives find the evidence that the baby's accidental drowning was actually a murder: there was no further follow up with the case least of all a court trial! At the end of this all, I'm not quite sure if the author was trying to write a report on a case of homicide or trying to write a mystery novel because if so, this book should have been way longer.