It came as no surprise to me when Snap was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2018, because Belinda Bauer is one of the most talented writers on the literary scene. The novel starts on the hard shoulder of a motorway, as Jack and his sisters wait by their broken-down car for their mother to walk to a phone and fetch help. Only she never returns. This terrible moment shapes the future of the three children, particularly Jack – now 14 – who takes on the role of carer. Belinda Bauer has created such an emotionally complex character in Jack, and I defy you not to root for him. Snap didn’t bag the Booker, but it’s an out-and-out winner for me.
A teenage boy hunts for his mother's killer in this Man Booker Prize-longlisted novel by ';the true heir to the great Ruth Rendell' (Mail on Sunday, UK). Just before Jack's mother disappeared up the road to get help, she put the eleven-year-old boy in charge of his two sister. As they wait for her on the shoulder of the road in their stifling, broken-down car, the three children bicker, whine and play I-Spy. But their mother never comes back. And after that long, hot summer's day, nothing will ever be the same again. At fifteen-years-old, Jack is still in chargesupporting his sisters any way he can while evading social services. Meanwhile, a young woman across town wakes to find a knife beside her bed, and a note readingI could of killed you. The police are tracking a mysterious burglar they call Goldilocks, for his habit of sleeping in the beds of the houses he robs. But the woman doesn't see the point of involving the police. And Jack, very suddenly, may be on the verge of finding out who killed his mother. The Gold Dagger Award-winning author of Blacklands reaffirms her reputation for masterful, twisty crime fiction with this ';unnerving suspense novel' (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times).
