'Erin and her brother Alex were the last children abducted by 'the Father', a serial killer who only ever took pairs of siblings. She escaped, but her brother was never seen again. Traumatised, Erin couldn't remember anything about her ordeal, and the Father was never caught.
'Eighteen years later, Erin has done her best to put the past behind her. But then she meets Harriet. Harriet's young cousins were the Father's first victims and, haunted by their deaths, she is writing a book about the disappearances and is desperate for an interview. At first, Erin wants nothing to do with her. But then she starts receiving sinister gifts, her house is broken into, and she can't shake the feeling that she's being watched. After all these years, Erin believed that the Father was gone, but now she begins to wonder if he was only waiting... '
The Final Child is a book that surprised me from the very first page. I guess I'm used to reading thriller books that aren't set within the UK, because as soon as I started reading this book and I was presented with a list of child abductions that took place around the area where I lived I had to take a moment to realise what I'd just read. From the first few pages I realised that this was not only going to be a book that felt more at home because it's a British murder mystery, but because I knew some of the places it was going to be happening in. I have to admit, it instantly won me over; and not once did Fran Dorricott let me down as the book went on.
The story of The Final Child follows two women, women who begin the story so closely connected even though they've never met before. Harriett is a former journalist who grew up hearing stories about how her cousins were taken by 'The Father', a serial kidnapper and killer of young siblings in the late 1990's. Having grown up knowing that her cousins young lives were brutally cut short, and seeing what this does to a family, Harriet has been working on a book about it.
Her book began as a way of her being able to process her own grief and issues with what happened, and slowly evolved into her wanting to tell the stories of not just her cousins, but all of the young victims of 'The Father'. Having seen how so many true crime fanatics and the press focus on the killer, often ignoring the victims, Harriet wanted to create something that celebrates and memorialises those who lost their lives to him.
Erin is one of 'The Father's' victims. The only child taken by him to ever be found alive. The final child. Having grown up being unable to remember what happened to her, but knowing that she and her brother were taken by a killer, and that her brother's body will probably never be found, Erin as tried to move, Alex, on with her life. She's tried to distance herself from her past as much as possible, changing her look, and even changing her name from Jilly to Erin.
One day, when visiting her mother, Erin meets Harriet, a young woman who has approached her mother wanting to learn more about her and Alex. At first she's pretty hostile towards Harriet, wanting nothing to do with this woman who seems to have barged into her life, wanting to drag up her past. However, strange things start to happen to Erin. She feels like she's being watched, and her house gets broken into. These incidents start to make her think of her past, and as such she agrees to speak to Harriet.
Together, the two young women begin to try to figure out what might have happened to 'The Father', if they're really dead, and if perhaps there were more victims of his out there. As their investigation begins to uncover new evidence it becomes clearer that someone's targeting Erin, and the two of them are now in danger. Could 'The Father' be back, or is this a deadly new stalker?
So often in stories where characters are looking into old cases, trying to figure out what really happened in the past, there's a lack of urgency to things. People get to spend a lot of time going from place to place, looking around at things, talking to person after person, putting the pieces of the mystery together as they see fit. The Last Child seems to buck this trend, however, as thanks to this shadowy figure that's messing with our two heroines there's a constant sense of danger lurking in the background. You're always waiting for something awful to happen, and it feels like Erin and Harriet have to find answers soon, before something terrible happens.
This sense of urgency and danger aren't just great for pacing and keeping the story story moving, but also as a way of pushing the relationship between the two leads. Over the course of the book we switch between narrators, and we get the chance to know Erin and Harriet quite well. At first, they seemed like the kinds of people who wouldn't really get along. Erin is closed off, afraid to let anyone in, and completely opposed to helping Harriet and her investigation; wanting nothing more than to just forget her past and live her life. Harriet also starts off feeling a bit self centred. She wants to finish her book, claiming that it's for all of the victims of 'The Father', but she keeps pushing at Erin, perhaps overstepping the mark a few times; and even refuses to think of her as Erin rather than Jillian, still thinking of her as the victim of 'The Father' rather than her own person.
But, this changes as the book goes on, and as the narrative keeps forcing the two of them together. Not only do they become friends, but it also very quickly becomes clear that there's something more to their feelings too. We learn very early on that Erin is attracted to women, but it isn't until she and Harriet begin to get close that we discover Harriet feels a similar attraction to her; though it does seem to be heavily implied that she's never been in any form of romantic situation with a woman before. What begins as a very strained relationship, where they're both keeping each other at arms length soon becomes this wonderful sapphic relationship where they're each trying to find the best way to be close to the other; and it was wonderful.
Perhaps it's simply down to the books I've been reading, but this might be the first time that a queer relationship has been given centre stage in a crime thriller book that I've read. And I loved it. Not only was it great to see two women being able to love each other, and come together during such an awful situation, but it made me smile every time they gingerly reached out to hold the others hand, or made to gently kiss the other, almost afraid of what might happen. It gave moments of tenderness and care in what might have otherwise been a brutal and unforgiving narrative.
Throughout the course off the book readers also get the chance to see things from the point of view of other characters, brief snippets that begin to shed light on what really happened in the past, and how things led to children being kidnapped and murdered. These moments were really interesting, and definitely expanded the narrative in interesting ways without giving too much away. There were a few times that these flashbacks, in conjunction with things happening in the present, really helped me as a reader to understand things, and I appreciated that Dorricott always held certain information back to keep the mystery going without it feeling forced. The stuff we learnt wasn't being intentionally vague or misleading to keep certain aspects as a surprise, which is an incredibly hard line to walk. But Dorricott did it expertly here.
There are some parts of the book that get very disturbing too, with death, torture, mutilation, and child harm being big parts of the book, but it never felt like any off it was being done in a way that was simply to gross out or disturb the reader purely for the sake of it. There are some awful things in this book, but it felt natural, it felt like something that no only is plausible, but something that you'd expect to see on a true crime television show. The book felt very grounded because of that, and there are times where it would make me think of real crimes and real killers because it felt so eerily familiar; and that was possibly the most disturbing aspect of the whole thing.
The Final Child is one of those books that I found hard to put down. It's a book where the narrative and the characters were so engrossing that I needed to keep reading to find out what happened next. I loved the people that inhabited the pages, I wanted them to be okay, and I'd love to read more about them, even if it's just their boring mundane lives. I didn't expect to love this book as much as I did when I started, but it's easily become a firm favourite.
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Hi Fran, thank you for taking the time to answer some questions; I absolutely loved the book and am very excited to pick your brain for a bit.
Hi Amy! Thanks so much and I’m so glad you enjoyed The Final Child. Thanks for this interview opportunity!
The Final Child deals with some pretty dark subjects, but you managed to present the story in a very sensitive way and it never felt exploitative at all. Was this a hard thing to do, especially as these are things that can and do happen to real people?
Absolutely, yes. I’m very wary when I write that it’s easy to misjudge how dark is too dark when it comes to areas of focus in crime fiction, so I always make a concerted effort to write fiction that has balance. I usually attempt to do this by making sure that my focus is very human, on survivors rather than villains. This is partly why I chose to make Harriet’s mission to write a book about the children who were abducted, not about the villain who abducted them. Too often I think we are drawn to villains because we long to know what makes them tick, but in my opinion there is an element of responsibility if I write about that darkness to also demonstrate the way it impacts the survivors and their families, especially, as you say, as there are people these things have happened to.
The story felt very realistic, and if I’m completely honest it reminded me of a lot of true crime documentaries and articles I’ve seen over the years. Was it important to you that the book feel a lot more grounded than other mystery thrillers?
It’s definitely something I considered while writing the novel, yes. I think it’s important when writing quite dark thrillers to make sure that there is a strong element of realism to them because I don’t want to present this dark world in a light that invalidates the struggles of real-life survivors. That being said though, there’s something so addictive about true crime as a genre, as any fan knows – something that draws you in and keeps your attention until the end – and I wanted to channel that in my own work. I am a fan, especially, of the sort of slow-burn true crime documentaries that lay everything out to slowly build a picture, a picture which creeps insidiously into your brain while you’re trying to do other things until you can’t think about anything else. I wanted to get that same sense of creeping dread in Erin’s story.
What kind of research did you have to do whilst writing the book?
A lot! It might sound corny to say I watched a lot of true crime and listened to a lot of podcasts, but that’s how this novel started. I also had a lot of conversations and interviews with medical professionals and ex-police officers to make sure that the procedures in the book were as accurate as possible. It was surprising how much work it took to make sure everything felt authentic, given how much crime media I’ve consumed over the years, and I’m endlessly grateful to anybody who gave their time to help me out. The most interesting topic I found myself researching was the use of rescue and cadaver dogs by the police, a topic I’d never have thought would be so fascinating to me!
Your book is set in the East Midlands area, what made you choose this part of the UK for the book, was it just an area you’re familiar with, or was there something else that influenced your decision?
It was kind of a three-fold decision, really. Firstly, it is an area I know well, which does have certain benefits, but a lot of the locations within the book are fictionalised places that I created especially for the book because I wanted to give a sense of the area without being tied too closely to specific locations, for those people who haven’t ever visited the Midlands. The second reason is that I, as a reader, absolutely love reading about a variety of different places, and though there are a few authors who write books set in the East Midlands I think it’s really great to have a little diversity in setting in the British crime community! And, lastly, I decided to set the book around where I live because Derbyshire is an absolutely beautiful county; it’s so green, full of rolling farmland and woodland and gorgeous rocky outcrops, and I wanted a chance to capture some of that in my books, even if the circumstances are somewhat bleak.
One of the things that I loved about the book was the relationship that formed between Erin and Harriet, especially how at the beginning they seemed like they could end up not liking each other. What made you choose to have a sapphic love story as a major part of the book?
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community it’s always been super important to me that there’s more representation in fiction, because as a reader I love being able to see characters like myself. It makes the experience much less lonely! The reason I wanted it to be a core element of the story, without taking away from the central mystery, is that I like to read books with a central romance, and simply put I wanted to be able to write the kind of book I would enjoy reading. I’m a big fan of rivals/enemies to lovers type romances, and I wanted to play with the trope for Harriet and Erin’s relationship to show two characters who were impacted very differently by their experiences: one who becomes avoidant of the past, and the another who mires herself in it.
This is one of the first crime thrillers I’ve read where there’s a queer relationship as a main part of the narrative, and The Final Child has at least two represented in it. Do you think this is a genre where queer relationships aren’t given enough focus?
I think that crime fiction has always been really open to writers subverting tropes and presenting diverse characters, but queer crime novels historically haven’t always had the press or publicity of other genres. I think one of the best things about the crime publishing over the last few years is that is changing massively, and there are a lot more diverse titles and characters within them. I do wish it was even more common though, because it’s something I love to read so much! I would especially love more ‘incidentally queer’ characters, like the second couple in The Final Child, who appear only briefly but it is noted, because even small representation matters.
Your previous novel, After The Eclipse, also featured a storyline where awful things happened involving children, is this a theme that keeps coming back to you, and will you be exploring it more in the future?
Honestly, I’m not sure whether it’s something I will explore going forward. It’s not a topic I’m intentionally drawn to, but it’s genuinely one of the worst things I can imagine, which gives it a place in the fiction I write about the very worst of humanity. I am fully aware that it’s a sensitive topic, and that requires a large degree of care, but I’ve always used my fiction to explore things that make me sad or uncomfortable, and as a way of processing the world, so I suspect that’s why I’ve written about it more than once now – it haunts me.
Something that I think you did particularly well over the course of the book was the brief flashbacks involving the person committing the crimes. You managed to offer a load of insight into the kind of person it was and what motivated them, yet you were still able to keep exactly who they were a mystery. Was that something that you found hard to find a balance with?
Thank you! Flashbacks are one of my greatest writer loves. I think they’re a lot of fun to craft because they can give insight into the pivotal moments that make characters who they are, but I have to admit there were elements of the flashbacks in The Final Child that made them very challenging to write. Still, they’re probably a part of the book that I’m the most proud of, so although they were difficult to balance I think the rewards outweigh the trickiness!
Are you a big fan of true crime?
Yes! Less so in the last year or two (the pandemic has made my tastes run a little lighter lately) but it’s absolutely a genre I’ve always been drawn to. There’s something fascinating about seeing the worst in people and questioning what might have caused the behaviours of terrible people committing heinous acts, and in true crime, unlike a lot of crime fiction, we don’t always have the answers to those questions. It leads to the viewer trying to fill in a lot of blanks, and that kind of armchair detective behaviour can be pretty addictive!
What kind of books inspired you to want to become a writer yourself?
I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember so I can’t say for sure which authors lit the initial spark of love, but there have been many crime writers over the years whose books have held me captive and made me wish I could write as well as them. I started with Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, and read a lot of procedurals by authors such as Patricia Cornwell, who I owe a lot to when it comes to my beginnings as a crime writer. I soon moved onto modern psychological thrillers; I’m a huge fan of Gillian Flynn and Tana French, and have recently loved books by S. K. Tremayne and Claire Fuller. Every time I read a novel I adore it inspires me to work harder, to write more, and to challenge myself to write new and exciting things.
What can we look forward to seeing from you next?
My next book is a psychological suspense novel due out in February 2022 called The Lighthouse, about a group of friends who stay in a lighthouse on a remote Scottish island for their ten year university reunion. On the first evening, someone goes missing – and when they find him, he’s terrified, but he won’t say a word about where he’s been, or acknowledge the unexplained things that begin to happen. Nothing will persuade James to give up the secrets of the island, but is he protecting his friends or leading them into more danger?
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