Snap by Belinda Bauer #snap #belindabauer #atlanticmonthlypress #murder#mystery @absltmom

Sometimes you come across a special character in a book. They are different, people who are strong no matter their age, people you would like to know because you admire who and what they are. People who are so well written into a story that they become real and not just a fictitious person on a page. Such was the character, Jack, in the book:

Left bereft by the murder of his pregnant mother, trying to hold his family together, Jack embarks on a mission to find out who killed his mother. Three years later, Jack has taken up a life of crime, taught by his mentor Louis Bridge, to break and enter people’s homes in order to provide food and basic necessities to his sisters. Jack is only fourteen and his father has left them, wallowing in his own world of despair. He needs to keep his sisters out of social services, trying to keep them together as best he can. That is a tremendous burden on the shoulders of a young man. He seems to be up for the challenge, being called the Goldilocks burglar, because of his sleeping in the bed of one of the children in the homes of the places he robs. Detectives are on the case and the trail of the Goldilocks burglar. Then something happens.

Jack finds a knife, in the home of Catherine and Adam. He is convinced that this is the very knife that was used to murder his mother. The riveting chase is on, and Jack’s need to care for and keep his family together takes him down the road to allying with the police and discovering who had taken his beloved mother from him.

Told with lots of turns, but more a character based thriller, this novel will keep you turning those pages as Jack holds his family together, while he seeks retribution and redress for his mother’s brutal slaying. You will definitely be engrossed in this narrative as Ms Bauer weaves a tale of multiple story lines and characters that she ingeniously places together to provide one with an alluring compelling story. Recommended to those who like a tight thriller with characters that are vibrant and cleverly written.

BELINDA BAUER grew up in England and South Africa. She has worked as a journalist and screenwriter, and her script THE LOCKER ROOM earned her the Carl Foreman/Bafta Award for Young British Screenwriters, an award that was presented to her by Sidney Poitier. She was a runner-up in the Rhys Davies Short Story Competition for “Mysterious Ways,” about a girl stranded on a desert island with 30,000 Bibles. Belinda Bauer now lives in Wales.