The Quiet Child

A Novel

By: John Burley

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

From the award-winning author of The Absence of Mercy, comes a gripping and darkly psychological novel about family, suspicion, and the price we are willing to pay to protect those we love the most.

It’s the summer of 1954, and the residents of Cottonwood, California, are dying. At the center of it all is six-year-old Danny McCray, a strange and silent child the townspeople regard with fear and superstition, and who appears to bring illness and ruin to those around him. Even his own mother is plagued by a disease that is slowly consuming her.

Sheriff Jim Kent, increasingly aware of the whispers and rumors surrounding the boy, has watched the people of his town suffer—and he worries someone might take drastic action to protect their loved ones. Then a stranger arrives, and Danny and his ten-year-old brother, Sean, go missing. In the search that follows, everyone is a suspect, and the consequences of finding the two brothers may be worse than not finding them at all.

Not worth it... semi spoiler alert

The beginning had promise- but then it just transformed into something strange. The fathers entire plan to remove Danny from the household because of the belief that he was the cause/curse for his wife coming down with lou Gehrig disease... I mean, come on?!!!I know this took place decades ago but seriously????
who truly believes something like that? And the fact that the entire town seemed to believe he was the cause of the townspeople’s ailments and accidents too. There were several other things that seemed off/confusing/ unimportant that just made the book entirely unrealistic and silly.