My Review of Little Friends by Jane Shemilt

Little Friends by Jane Shemilt is both a disturbing and gripping read. It centres on three families and their intertwined lives which collide with catastrophic results.  Little Friends is a domestic noir thriller, we know something terrible has happened serious enough for the police to be involved but we don't know what and we are taken on a trip back in time to discover the gruesome truth.

I loved the skill with which  Shemilt creates the enigma, everytime I thought I'd worked out what was going on something else would happen to scupper my assumptions. It's a dense novel in the best sense of the word as the omniscient narrator flits in and out of different lives and homes. They are not aimless visits but it's only in hindsight that we realise the import of seemingly insignificant events.

The characters are well drawn and plausible and highlight the way in which we all lead secret inner lives and the inherent dangers this can bring. Secrets are dangerous. This is particularly true of the parents who get so caught up in their own lives, for a multitude of reasons, that they have no real idea what their children are up to. I found Little Friends moral heart appealing, children may be innocent but this does not grant them a right to privacy, and as parents we need to look behind the face they present to the world and see them for who they really are. Children should never be ignored!

Thank you to Sriya at  Penguin Random House for my gifted copy.