Book set in Kentucky – The Nowhere Child – Christian White

Submitted: 27th January 2019

A mystery set in the fictional town of Manson, KY

Manson – the name alone carries so much fear and darkness. This novel is not about him however, but a town with the same name. Fictional but based in and around the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky.

A child goes missing and then 20 years later, a woman living in Australia is told she is that missing child….And that revelation is just the start…

BookTrail Travel to locations in The Nowhere Child

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Manson, Kentucky might be fictional but it feels very very real. It’s the scene of a child disappearance and seems to be in the middle of nowhere, so it might not be somewhere you visit anyway. The Church of the Light Within in the religious family which seems to make up a large part of people’s beliefs and live here. It’s not a religious community but not far from it.

Add to that a missing child, and the sense of split in that community is huge. Molly, the mother gets more religious and I got a bit freaked out at the practices involving snakes! This added to the horror of a missing child for me with a strange sense that there was a lot wrong in this community back then and there might still be..

The story also takes place in Melbourne, where a photographer named Kimberly Leahy is working twenty years later. A man approaches her at the college where she teaches and claims that she is that missing child, Sammy, kidnapped from Kentucky all those years ago.

So many questions arise at this point. Could it really be that she is that missing child. Taken so far away from home to a different continent, to the other side of the world? Of course, she has to find out, and so she heads to the town of Manson to open up a few wounds. Things get dark and uncomfortable but the pace always keeps you wanting to know more.

It’s quite a harrowing tale which merges themes of family, lies, cults, religious beliefs and how the past really can come back to haunt you. The writing grips from the off and never lets go. The ending was nicely done and a very good surprise!

The setting of Manson may be fictional but it’s heavily influenced by the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. The dark caverns, the limited space, the claustrophobic all play a great role in the novels. And the name Manson more than rankles a few hairs on the back of your neck…

Top thriller this one. More please Mr White!