‘Little Face’ by Sophie Hannah

Published by Hodder & Stoughton.
10 April 2006.
ISBN: 978-0-340-84031-3

At the behest of her mother-in-law Alice Fancourt attends a local heath club Waterfront. It is the first time that Alice has been out of the house since the birth of her daughter Florence. She has left Florence in the care of her husband David, but when she returns home, she insists that the baby in the cradle is not Florence and that someone has been in the house in her absence and substituted this imposter baby for her daughter Florence.

So begins a bizarre nightmare, for how can Alice convince all those around her that the child in her daughter’s cradle is not Florence. Whilst her husband and Vivienne her mother-in-law think that she has gone mad, Detective Constable Simon Waterhouse is not sure if all is as it seems, and suspects that something sinister maybe going on.

Investigation into the family background brings up the fact that David Fancourt’s first wife was stabbed to death at The Elms, the family home.

This is one of the best psychological mysteries I have read in a long time.  A family- seemingly perfect on the outside but concealing secrets and inflicting untold damage to each other behind closed doors. I found some of the incidents profoundly disturbing and outside my comprehension, but all too frighteningly possible.  One of the best books I have read in a long time. Truly gripping. Recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling crime fiction writer. Her crime novels have been translated into 34 languages and published in 51 countries. Her psychological thriller The Carrier won the Specsavers National Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year in 2013. In 2014 and 2016, Sophie published The Monogram Murders and Closed Casket, the first new Hercule Poirot mysteries since Agatha Christie's death, both of which were national and international bestsellers.
Sophie’s novels The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives have been adapted for television as Case Sensitive, starring Olivia Williams and Darren Boyd. Sophie is also a bestselling poet who has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE and A-level throughout the UK.  Sophie is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, two children and dog.

www.sophiehannah.com