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The Half-Child is another intense and memorable mystery from Australian crime writer Angela Savage.

 

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About the Book

A mysterious suicide draws ex-pat PI Jayne Keeney to Pattaya and to a case that exposes the plight of young mothers in a culture that shuns those labelled ‘half-child’. Posing as a volunteer Jayne finds herself at the New Life Children’s Centre caring for children awaiting adoption, but it soon becomes clear that things at there’s more the centre than finding homes for orphaned children. Jayne’s investigation moves in a direction that raises more questions than answers and exposes her to powerful enemies. Finding the truth could have devastating consequences for Jayne and for a young mother who would do anything for her half-child.

My Thoughts

The Half-Child by Angela Savage is highly emotive. As with her previous novel, Behind the Night Bazaar, Savage does not shy from showing the harsh reality of those who by choice or circumstance live outside accepted Thai society. The young women who find their way to the centre’s clinic are abandoned and pregnant. They can’t return home because of their shame, and they are just as vulnerable to those in authority as they are from the men who use their bodies. All the characters are well rounded and complex with differing views of the cultural and political climate, which feeds well into a story that is as much an exploration of foreign adoption as it is a crime story. We see a lot more of Jayne Keeney’s vulnerabilities in this novel, yet I still found her hard to relate to as a character. Having said that, there were moments when I had to stop reading because I was furious at the girls’ treatment by those who should protect them. That is a sure sign of Savage’s power as a writer.

Pacey and penetrating, The Half-Child is the type of novel that leaves you pondering an ethical question while longing for the next Jayne Keeney installment.

About the Author

Angela Savage is a Melbourne-based crime writer, who has lived and travelled extensively in Asia. Her crime fiction novels are set in Thailand and feature Australian expat detective Jayne Keeney. The first book in the series Behind the Night Bazaar (Text, 2006) won the 2004 Victorian Premiers’ Literary Award for Unpublished Manuscript and was short-listed for the 2007 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Book. The second book The Half-Child (Text, 2010), and third, The Dying Beach, were both shortlisted for Ned Kelly Awards for Best Crime Fiction, with The Dying Beach also shortlisted for the 2014 Davitt Award.

Read my review of Book 1: Behind the Night Bazaar

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