When the worst comes calling…
Scott and Blair Bagby are a happy, successful English couple living in the suburbs with their teenage son and Great Dane. Life seems good, until one beautiful spring morning when a detective inspector knocks on their door asking if their son is home, unleashing an unspeakable horror that blows apart the life they thought they had.
Police have discovered bodies buried deep in the Peasedale forest and the inspector suspects one is Jamie, the final victim of a brutal and prolific serial killer. But Jamie’s death is unlike all the others, starting with his emergency phone call that leads to a macabre burial ground near a dilapidated hunting shack and creates shocking suspicions.
With bone deep grief threatening to destroy their marriage and their sanity, Scott and Blair set out to investigate Jamie’s death, a journey that not only upends their perceptions of who they are, but torturously reveals they may not have known Jamie at all…
Book Info: Print length: 368 pages. Publisher: Tule Publishing. Publication Date: 25 June 2025
My Thoughts:
The Other Boy is Heidi Field’s debut novel, a gripping psychological thriller that delves deep into parenthood and grief.
It’s every parents worst nightmare, a detective knocking at your door with the news their teenage son’s has been been discovered in the woods with several other bodies and is the victim of a serial killer.
Scott and Blair Bagby are a successful and happily married couple. Devoted to their teenage son, Jamie, who has been distancing himself from his parents over the past few months. They have put this down to typical teenage behaviour, but when the police start to link Jamie to the serial killer, Scott and Blair are determined to find out what really happened and prove their son’s innocence.
This story looks closely at the parent/child relationship and asks the question “do we really know our children?”. The reader is taken on a harrowing and emotional journey as the parents navigate the unimaginable loss of their only child as well as trying to understand what happened and how Jamie was involved.
Both parents deal with their loss and grief in different ways and the author portrays their behaviour with sensitivity and authenticity.
The Other Boy is a powerful psychological thriller full of emotion, tension and suspense.
