My teaser today comes from The Quiet Child, a suspense novel by John Burley, which I am reading as my “Q” title in my Alphabet Challenge.

Both of his sons, Sean, and Danny, the younger child who does not speak and is referred to by people in his small town as “the quiet child,” were stolen/kidnapped (?) when a man stole Michael’s car when he walked into a store to pick up ice cream. Michael tells the police that he has not heard from the “kidnapper,” but borrows his sister-in-law’s car and takes off for parts unknown. As Michael, the boys’ father, takes things into his own hands, he approaches a freeway exit at the beginning of chapter 18:

“It was eight-thirty in the morning when Michael exited the highway, turned right onto NF-742, and then left onto Butcherknife Road.  He’d spent the night in the car in Grants Pass, and drove the twenty minutes to Wilderville, as soon as he woke. He should’ve eaten and picked up supplies–a canteen and a hunting knife at least– before starting out. It would’ve been wiser.”

Does the quiet, younger brother Danny bring on sickness and bad happenings as the rumour about town goes? Will the townspeople “do something” about the threat from the child? Who has taken the two boys, and why? Will MIchael, their father, kill whoever has abducted his sons? Will their frail mother, who has been cursed with a “wasting disease” since Danny’s birth survive this most recent ordeal?

I am anxious to read more to answer these questions.