An enthralling kidnap thriller about autism, a missing toddler, and the love that fuels some violent crime.
Monica is four years old. She does not speak. She does not read or write. She screams when the world gets too much.
And Monica is missing.
Detective Inspector Judy Baletree is sent to investigate the scene of a speech pathologist’s house where Monica was last seen. The back doors are smashed and the speech pathologist is bleeding from a stab wound in the back. Monica is missing, but was she kidnapped? Did she wander away from a violent robbery? Or have her parents become too frustrated with Monica’s complex sensory needs and done something horrible to their toddler?
When the people who hurt children are questioned and confessions are made, Detective Inspector Baletree is led into a world of misery and desperation. She must attack neglectful parents, kidnap gangsters and force the truth from the men she suspects. As Baletree forces her brain to try and understand the motives of the deviants who lock away the missing children of Australia, she can’t escape the possibility that Monica’s kidnapper could be someone who claims to love her.
Does Monica’s abductor think he’s saved her from a more terrible fate?
Baletree finds the remains of horrifying men who claim to love their families, and child abductors who try to give the young people they steal a better life than the neglectful homes from which they were stolen.
Could Detective Inspector Judy Baletree finally find Monica by hunting for the person who cared most sincerely for her?
The author, Daniel Norrish, is a disability support worker in Australia. Every day, Dan works with autistic people to help target goals and limit the damage done by a society that was not designed for everyone. Dan LOVES autism and has written this series to show readers why sensory preferences and a different way of processing can be AWESOME.
