Helpful Score: 1
British author Reah's unsettling and somewhat creepy psychological thriller explores the extent to which one child's fantasies prove frighteningly real. The story opens with the police search for missing six-year-old Lucy Fielding and her babysitter, Emma, in a neighborhood park in Sheffield, England. Lucy's mother, Jane, and Jane's best friend, Suzanne Milner, are frantic until Lucy is found safe in nearby woods. Emma is not as lucky her dead body is discovered in an abandoned section of the park. Lucy, a stoic child with a vivid imagination, explains that there are monsters in the park, yet no one takes the child seriously except Suzanne, and an investigation ensues.
Detective Inspector Steve McCarthy is assigned a case where a young woman's body is found in the park. His only lead Suzanne Milner, the woman who found the body and she is reluctant to get involved.