A Stranger in the Family: A Novel of Suspense [Hardcover]

Robert Barnard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 8, 2010

From Robert Barnard, the internationally acclaimed Diamond Dagger–winning crime writer . . .

Kit Philipson has always felt like something of a stranger in his family. Growing up as the only child of professional parents in Glasgow, Scotland, he had every advantage. His mother was a teacher; his father, a journalist, escaped from Nazi Germany at the age of three on one of the 1939 Kindertransports. But on her deathbed, Kit’s mother tells him he was adopted and that his birth name was Novello. Soon, vague memories of his early life begin to surface: his nursery, pictures on the wall, the smell of his birth mother when she’d been cooking. And, sometimes, there are more disturbing memories—of strangers taking him by the hand and leading him away from the only family he had ever known. A search of old newspaper files reveals that a three-year-old boy named Peter Novello was abducted from his parents’ holiday hotel in Sicily in 1989. Now the young man who has known himself only as Kit sets out to rediscover his past, the story of two three-year-old boys torn from their mothers in very different circumstances. Kit’s probing inquiries are sure to bring surprises. They may also unearth dangerous secrets that dare never be revealed.

With sharp wit and deep insight, Robert Barnard sweeps away all preconceptions in this powerful study of maternal love and the danger of obsession.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kit Philipson (born Peter Novello), the reserved hero of this intriguing suspense novel from Diamond Dagger Award–winner Barnard (Last Post), grew up with all too perfect adoptive parents in Glasgow, Scotland. Now that the couple who raised him are dead, Kit seeks answers about his past from his biological parents, and learns that his adoption stemmed from his kidnapping at age three during a Novello family holiday in Trepalu, Sicily, in 1989. His birth mother discourages him from digging into why he was abducted, while his dying birth father won't even acknowledge Kit as his own. Determined to suss out the truth, Kit discovers that his adoptive father and his birth father once had a mysterious confrontation at a conference. Kit must go back to a grandfather's dealings during WWII to move forward, but can there be a sweet family ending after all the coldness and deception? Readers will keep turning the pages to find out. (June)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Each new whodunit from this highly regarded British master is both predictable and innovative. Barnard is comfortably predictable in that his plotlines are always tightly composed, his characters are created “in the round” and are not just types, and his writing style is precise. He is innovative because his novels always feature fresh situations for him to explore. The theme here is family undercurrents as the main character, a young man from Glasgow, Scotland, learns from his dying mother that he was adopted and that his real parents live in Leeds, England. Digging into his recently discovered past, Kit realizes that as a three-year-old he was abducted from his parents while the family was on vacation in Sicily. He proceeds to Leeds and presents himself to his original family as their long-lost son. Their reaction is friendly but not warm; something strikes Kit as wrong. He investigates further, attempting to establish a “connection between a Leeds solicitor’s family his natural family and a literary academic family in Glasgow headed by a Jewish refugee his adopted family.” The reconstruction of his true past is a thoroughly gripping tale. --Brad Hooper

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1 edition (June 8, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439176744
• ISBN-13: 978-1439176740
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #949,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Oh Please Mr. Barnard, December 31, 2010

By 

Hortensia "Sunshine" (California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Stranger in the Family: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

Please, no more books about screwed up families. No more trawling through memories and family gossip. It's getting a little boring. Please write some more police procedurals, bring back Charlie Peace and Perry Trethowen, much more interesting people than those soulless types you've been writing about lately. Remember "Bodies?" Remember "Death in a Cold Climate?" You are my favorite writer. You have gone too far in this direction, let's get back to some more compelling characters, more interesting stories, people we can like or dislike. I get the feeling the people in all your most recent books are just humorless, passionless sorts digging around through the past because it's mildly intriguing, but they have nothing that speaks to me like your earlier characters.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Flat tone and characters, August 3, 2011

By 

Lucyshnoosy "Shnoosy" - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Stranger in the Family: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

I have never read any of Robert Barnard's books before I picked this up at the library. I don't know if I will be able to keep going in it. I have read almost half the book and I am perplexed by an odd flatness to the characters and tone. I couldn't warm up to Kit at all - he is so detached and has no warmth whatsoever. There is also little description or detail in the novel.

The writing seems careless and does not come alive for me. Perhaps it was not carefully edited? For instance, there seems to be some missing conversation at the end of chapter two. After the party at which Kit meets his relatives we get the following:

"In the taxi on the way home Isla said. 'There, now you know most of the family...The grandchildren are lovely, aren't they?'
Kit agreed, uncertain how far the implications of the analysis were meant to be understood by him. Whatever was the case, he *did* understand them, and wondered at his birth mother feeling the need to make such base insinuations. The undercurrents in this family clearly ran strong."

What? Did I miss a couple of paragraphs in which Isla analyzes people and makes insinuations? When I carefully checked, there was in fact no explanation whatsoever for this strange comment.

There were other oddly expressed passages. For example, when Kit is describing Jurgen in chapter three, he talks about the guilt Jurgen felt

"...as the world learned more and more about what happened in the death camps. He and I did lots of things together, but he was never a happy person, except in his private life. There was a sort of shadow floating around and over him. He was always on the defensive."

This is not well expressed. It's odd to say that someone was never happy - except that they *were* happy in their private life.* It's a strange thought, or perhaps not strange, but not smoothly crafted.

I rarely get halfway through a book and then abandon it. But I just can't keep going with this one. From the reviews below, it seems that his earlier novels were more interesting (and I hope, better crafted.) Perhaps I will look at some of his best-reviewed works and try another.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A stranger in the family, September 5, 2010

By 

Barbara B. Williamson "teapotz" (Wilson,NC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Stranger in the Family: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

Not his usual wonderful read. Barnard was always a reliable mystery writer with lots of surprises and unusual endings. Not this time. Very predictable and trite.