About the Book

When single mum Joanna hears a rumour at the school gates, she never intends to pass it on. But one casual comment leads to another and now there’s no going back . . .

Rumour has it that a notorious child killer is living under a new identity, in their sleepy little town of Flinstead-on-Sea.

Sally McGowan was just ten years old when she stabbed little Robbie Harris to death forty-eight years ago – no photos of her exist since her release as a young woman.

So who is the supposedly reformed killer who now lives among them? How dangerous can one rumour become? And how far will Joanna go to protect her loved ones from harm, when she realizes what it is she’s unleashed?

 

My Thoughts

The Rumour is a novel about the damage that gossip can do, and also about whether people who’ve done a terrible thing as a child can ever be allowed to make a new start as an adult. This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2018 and I finally got to read it this week and it was everything I hoped it would be, and more!

I was gripped by The Rumour from the opening pages! It was unsettling to be reading, and sitting in judgement, of the women at the school gates gossiping about a rumour one of them had heard that child killer Sally McGowan was living in their midst whilst at the same time immediately wanting to know whether this was true or not! At heart there is maybe something in all of us that can’t resist salacious gossip and this book really plays to that.

The novel also explores very cleverly the repercussions of the gossip in the town too. A woman is falsely believed to be the killer and her life is left damaged by the rumour. Other women who are of a similar age as Sally McGowan are looked at with suspicion. It must be horrible to feel in danger when you’re innocent. It also made me think about what it must be like to have done something so awful as a child and to have served your time and to be deemed to be rehabilitated but then it’s always there. Even with a new identity the media, and the gossips, will never quite leave it alone.

I really liked Joanna in this novel, although I did find her a little naive at times, she was clearly someone who wanted to do the best for her son and to make a life for herself in this town they’ve recently moved to. She tries to make friends with some other mums in order to help her son make friends, which is how she ends up fuelling the gossip with her own take on the rumour.

Lesley Kara captures small town mentality so perfectly. I grew up in a smallish town where everyone knew everyone else’s business. Gossip was right around the town before the subject of the gossip would even know about it. I found it so claustrophobic as I got a bit older and I’m glad not to live there anymore. The Rumour really captures how gossip spreads in small towns, and also the reasons why people gossip. Often no harm is meant but that doesn’t mean no harm is caused.

The Rumour is full of red herrings, and this makes for such a rollercoaster of a read. I loved that when I thought I had it all worked out there was a sting in the tail. The Rumour is a brilliant, fast-paced and unputdownable novel and I’m already thinking that it is highly likely to be on my best books of 2019! It was that good!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

The Rumour is out now and available here.