On Christmas Eve in 1988, seven-year-old Alfie Marsden vanished in the Wentshire Forest Pass when a burst tyre forced his father, Sorrel, to stop the car. Leaving the car to summon the emergency services, Sorrel returned to find his son gone. No trace of the child, nor his remains, have ever been found.
Alfie Marsden was declared officially dead in 1995. Elusive online journalist Scott King, whose Six Stories podcasts have become an internet sensation, investigates the disappearance, interviewing six witnesses, including Sorrel, his son and his ex-partner, to try to find out what really happened that fateful night. He takes a journey through the trees of the Wentshire Forest - a place synonymous with strange sightings and tales of hidden folk who dwell there. He talks to a company that tried and failed to build a development in the forest and a psychic who claims to know where Alfie is....
Intensely dark, deeply chilling and searingly thought provoking, Changeling is an up-to-the-minute, startling thriller, taking you to places you will never, ever forget.
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When the letter comes, the handwriting on the front sends a tingle of fear from the base of your spine, up to the knobby occiput at the back of your skull.
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(Audible Studios, 15 January 2019, audiobook, 7 hours 4 minutes, bought from @audibleuk, various narrators)
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Six Stories is quickly becoming my favourite series. I have the kindle version of Beast to read soon and I'm all up to date. Here's hoping the series will continue. There's something really enjoyable and immersive about the structure and premise of Changeling and other books in the series. The format for Changeling is the same as other books, six interviews with people involved in the case in some way, often surprising and never predictable. As I listen to each story a picture gradually started to form about the night Alfie vanished and events since then. I found the storytelling very immersive and compelling. I had so many questions as I listened to each story and these were gradually answered. I thoroughly enjoyed this.
