1996. Essex. Thirteen-year-old schoolgirl Carly lives in a disenfranchised town dominated by a military base, struggling to care for her baby sister while her mum sleeps off another binge. When her squaddie brother brings food and treats, and offers an exclusive invitation to army parties, things start to look a little less bleak...
2006. London. Junior TV newsroom journalist Marie has spent six months exposing a gang of sex traffickers, but everything is derailed when New Scotland Yard announces the re-opening of Operation Andromeda, the notorious investigation into allegations of sex abuse at an army base a decade earlier...
As the lives of these two characters intertwine around a single, defining event, a series of utterly chilling experiences is revealed, sparking a nail-biting race to find the truth ... and justice.
A riveting, searing and devastatingly dark thriller, The Source is also a story about survival, about hopes and dreams, about power, abuse and resilience ... an immense, tense and thought-provoking debut that you will never, ever forget.
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(@OrendaBooks, 15 April 2021, 320 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 23 April)
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This is a new author for me. I thought The Source was a terrific read. I loved the way the story bounced between the POV of Marie and Carly and moves back and forth in time, gradually revealing the links between it all. I don't often read fiction that deals with child sex abuse or sex trafficking, the last one I read a few years ago didn't handle the subject well and it put me off. Thankfully, the author does a great, sensitive job of dealing with such a difficult subject matter. I cried as Carly learns the true reason for the army parties and struggles to find a way out of the awful situation her brother and her family have forced her into. My heart wept for her. My heart was in my throat when the link between Carly and Marie is revealed and I kicked myself for not working it out earlier.
