Wow. Just wow! This is my first book by this author and I was blown away! Thrilling, intriguing, and a page turner for sure!

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

This is a story about child abduction, which may not be suited to everyone, but the narrative is what caught my attention and made me want to read it. Erin and her brother Alex were abducted together by the "Father" years ago. Erin was able to escape with the help of Alex, but he didn't make it. Now, Harriette, a woman writing a story about this serial abductor, has questions that only Erin can answer. However, things aren't going well for Erin, and this will lead them on an agonizing journey.
The back and forth point of view between Erin and Harriette can sometimes be confusing, but it eventually leads to an ending that I did not see coming.
Overall, "The Final Child" was an interesting story that held my attention, but it wasn't without its flaws. While I appreciated the plot and the characters, there were moments where the pacing felt slow, and I found myself losing interest at times. Nevertheless, if you enjoy stories about child abduction, this book might be worth checking out. Three stars from me.

This was fast paced, intriguing, twisty and gripping, all the elements of the perfect thriller from start to finish

The Final Child is a phenomenal thriller from start to finish. Filled to the brim with twists and a captivating plot, this one is sure to keep readers hooked. The characters are well-developed. The story is incredibly fast-paced. This is one not to be missed! Highly recommended!

This book somehow got buried in my TBR but I'm glad I finally revived it. It follows the aftermath of a serial killer "The Father". I enjoyed the alternating POV chapters and the plot which kept me guessing to the end!

This book is described as being a stunning psychological thriller and it was definitely that! It took me longer to get to than I care to admit, as I was not disappointed. I was in the mood for a crime-fiction, psych-thriller and this one definitely delivered. It featured sapphic characters and I loved the way the author had them in the story. I don't feel like you see that very often in thrillers and I would love to see this more often! The novel had a real true-crime feel although it was a fiction book, which I feel is a testament to the writing. I didn't guess any of the twists, which I usually feel I'm pretty good at, so kudos to the author for always keeping me guessing. There were a few things I had a couple of issues with, and I feel it could have been a bit shorter, but it's definitely a book I would recommend to any thriller or mystery lover!

Thank you to Titan Books and Netgalley for a copy of this one!

The Final Child is the first book that I have read by this author and it won't be the last - what a cracking read!!

The story features a sinister figure nicknamed "The Father" who has been abducting siblings for years, their bodies don't always turn up and he appears to keep some alive for longer periods of time. Erin (formally Jillian) is a surviving sibling who managed to escape from The Father and has lived with the guilt of leaving behind her brother ever since. She has changed her name and tries to distance herself from the case, the other victims relatives aren't always very welcoming. Harriet is attempting to write a book about the case as her nephews were considered the first victims of The Father, she enlists Erin's help (reluctantly to begin with) and together they begin to look into the facts. They had presumed he was dead as siblings had stopped being taken but then the families of the victims begin noticing strange things happening....

Absolutely fantastic and I can't wait to read more from this author!

I loved this book!

I could’ve easily binged read this but I took my time because of the amount of detail and different things going on.

I liked the plot, very dark, tense and intriguing. I loved reading from Erin and Harriett’s pov as well as the perspectives of before/after the event.

I didn’t guess the who-dunnit but I did guess elements of it - purely because of the little hints dropped throughout the book.

I loved the ending - it does make me wonder if there could be a sequel in the future even though it’s written as a standalone.

I’d definitely read more by this author in the future!

The final child is a physcogical thriller that follows the idea of "the father" who abducts children, only some bodies are found. Erin is one of the abducted but could never remember anything that occurred. Many years later, Harriet appears and works with Erin to uncover the truth behind "the father."

This was a very enjoyable novel and I really liked it. The way they incorporated sapphic characters naturally is also a plus. The plot was brilliant and kept you on edge.

Overall, I definitely recommend this sapphic thriller to anyone.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Over a period of years "the father" abducted siblings. Some bodies were found, some were not. One escaped and unable to remember anything tried to rebuild her life. 18 years later she meets Harriet. hariet has been trying to write a book about "the father" as her young cousins were victims of the father. As Harriet and Erin are brought together to discover the truth it seems that "the father" is very much alive. I found myself hooked with every twist and turn, and such a brilliant twist at the end end.

I'm a huge fan of Fran Dorricott's work since reading her first novel After the Eclipse, and I've been in such a huge reading slump pretty much all year, so I thought I would try and jump back into reading with a book I thought would be a guaranteed hit, and I was so right. The Final Child follows Harriet, who longs to finish her book into the disappearances of the children kidnapped by The Father, and Erin, one of The Father's victims - a survivor. The book follows the two as they delve into the mystery of who The Father is, and things start to get dangerous for the two. Like After the Eclipse, The Final Child was an edge-of-your-seat thriller. Both books are slow, and character-driven novels, which works brilliantly and Dorricott is very talented at creating a tense and dark atmosphere. Highly recommend.

***Special thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review***

This book was very entertaining and kept me at the edge of my seat. I also really liked reading a mystery with a wlw main character!

I would definitely recommend that people check out the trigger warnings before reading though.

A terrifying and creepy novel about a serial killer's survivor moving on, until the past returns for her.

A good but at sometimes formulaic thriller.

A nice quick read.

Absolutely fantastic book. I was hooked from page 1 right up until the end. I loved the characters, the drama, the suspense and the ending was outstanding. If you read one book this year then choose this one, it satisfies so many genres.

I would like to thank the author, publisher and NetGalley for giving me this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A big thank you to the publishers for my copy to review on netgalley, I loved her debut so was excited to read this.

If it wasn’t for my body giving me a tired week I’d have inhaled this in one go …its that much of a fantastic read.

You’re hooked straight away with relatable and complex characters. The plot is fast and addictive with many twists and turns .

Chilling and thrilling with a unpredictable story . Haunting and thought provoking this gets under your skin.

I loved this and highly recommend if you are enjoy authors such as CJ Tudor and Fiona Cummins

Published 7th September

I liked this book, the hook really grabbed me, and the narrative which sought to frame not only the experiences and names of the children taken, as opposed to defining them by the acts of their killer, is a bold move.

By giving the kidnapper/killer the moniker 'The Father', and having 2 relative strangers, bonded by circumstance , investigate his crimes, gave a familiarity with Erin(Jillian as she was known when kidnapped) and Harriet (cousin to the two possible first boys kidnapped, Jem and Mikey) and a distance from the perpetrator who remains faceless and nameless for most of the book. Sadly, this often returned power to him in the vein of 'he who walks behind the rows' or 'he who shall not be named.'

When returning the power to the children and the families with repetition of their names is a successful trait in The Final Child, the anonymity of Father gives him a mythological, boogeyman type status which sometimes undermines that effect.

It explores the things that most other novels do not-how do those left behind cope?

The person shaped hole in their lives....can it ever be filled?

And how do we treat the family of the boy and girl taken, Jillian and Alex, of whom only one returns?

Are they, as they are often told, 'lucky'?

It certainly does not seem lucky, in fact, Jillian has not only adapted her name to her middle one, Erin, she feels she is a no man's land of survivor guilt and inability to move on. Her lack of memories, her brain's way of getting her to cope with the trauma, leaves her with little to no knowledge of their time incarcerated, and she fills it with meaningless sex, destructive relationships, and hiding who she is.

Harriet, on the other hand, seeks to turn back the clock and examine, in close detail, the stories of the missing, and focus on the children and the relatives left behind. After the case has been concluded, or gone cold, are the families left in limbo? The scenes where the surviving parents meet up because their shared experience is so unique, that they are trapped in an endless grief with only each other to lean on, are particularly poignant. Especially when Erin relates how she was made to feel almost unwelcome, that 'luck' striking again.

Harriet's entire childhood is caught in amber, almost like a snowglobe that she can shake, and recall Jem and Mikey from her fragmented memories. Their kidnap and murder, remaining unsolved, has shown the dark side of childhood danger, the possibility of vanishing, never to be found. It also feels like the children that she knew, belong to the public at large and so, when she finds a crumbled newspaper underneath her mother's lino, a DIY project turns internal as she commits to tackling these stories in the hope of peace for her unquiet mind.

In the space between the things which Harriet and Erin have been through, a relationship cautiously builds, Harriet's theory that her cousins were not the first ones chosen, leads her journalist/writer's instinct down some very nasty paths. Erin, who has spent so much time building defences against the past, has found herself trapped within them and with Harriet's support, not only do they realistically chase down ideas, suspects, etc, they can go to the places where people will talk to them, as opposed to the police.

Chilling and ominously shadowed by bizarre, yet explainable occurrences-an open window, a moved piece of furniture, a feeling of being followed-the shadows coalesce into a nightmare made real. Father is not only genuinely scary, and here I have to be careful not to give any spoilers away, it throws a sharp relief of the expected gender roles of parents, and how societal constraints on these can go hideously wrong.

What I loved about this book so much was Harriet and Erin's narration, their first person voices overlapped a little and sometimes I had to go back to remember who was speaking, but their naturally occurring relationship was lovely to observe unfurling. These are two Sapphic protagonists, and again, I hope this is phrased correctly and inoffensively, they were naturally Sapphic. By that I mean they were characters who were naturally gay they weren't there to serve a plot point, provide titillation or any other function, they just were.

A bugbear of mine is when characters are brought in to show how progressive the writer is, you can tell when someone is shoehorned into a story to fit a purpose, here they are just Harriet and Erin, two women who, defined by events on their childhood, come together to tackle, defeat and bring into the light the source of their nightmares.

Apart from a couple of niggles regarding plot holes, and slightly too much repetition (you have more than enough reminders of who was taken when and who was affected by what, there is a cohesive timeline of events at the start of the book and I felt it was almost unnecessary to say -paraphrasing here-'Erin, whose brother Alex had been kidnapped with her and never found' or 'Harriet, whose cousins were the first pair taken'.

As a mystery, it works, it is a thriller with borderline horror undertones and will definitely appeal to those who read, and enjoyed Fran's first novel,'After The Eclipse', 'The Whisper Man' by Alex North, or any of CJ Tudor's books.

This was an awesome creepy thriller and I loved it. I was new to this author but I am definitely going to look for more from her. The Father's perspective made it feel even more sinister to me. Definitely give this a go if you like serial killer storylines. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I as gripped from the very start by this chilling psychological thriller that will also appeal to true crime fans.
We pick up the story in the aftermath of a series of sinister abductions of siblings as Harriet tries to piece together the truth and give a voice to the victims of The Father.
Fran draws her characters beautifully & there is a touching love story at the heart of her narrative .
My heart was racing as this rollercoaster of a read crept & twisted its way to it’s terrifying climax.

The Father was a serial child abductor and killer, taking pairs of siblings right out of their beds and keeping them for a time before killing them. Erin and Alex were the last ones; she managed to escape but Alex was never seen again. Eighteen years later, the cousin of the first pair of known victims is contacting the families and attempting to talk with Erin to write a book honoring the victims rather than discussing the abductor. Erin is reluctant to help Harriet, but she can't shake the feeling of being watched. Then odd gifts arrive, making Erin fear that the Father isn't dead after all.

I was drawn into Erin's story, as she avoided her past and the gaping holes in her memory that resulted from her trauma. Her survival left its scars on her, so that she didn't have close relationships or friends, was isolated from her mother and the other families that were impacted by the Father, and couldn't trust her own emotions. Harriet's family had pulled together after a fashion, and she wanted to help the families remember their lost and dead children; her manner of being stuck due to trauma was different but no less painful. She respected Erin's need for space, but Erin also had a need for connection, with brought the two of them closer together as the tension ratcheted up.

My heart went out to the victims, and the flashes we saw of the past leading up to the terrible summers when victims were abducted. It's a skillful author that makes you feel almost sorry for the child that will be the reason why other children are abducted. I suppose I should have expected the twist that came toward the end, but I didn't! I followed along with the journey that Erin and Harriet took as the "gifts" were laid out, flashes of memory teased Erin, and their sense of safety grew more and more precarious.

I was sucked into the story from page one and really felt the panic in the women as they were drawn into the echoes of the past. The conclusion was thrilling, and I had to race to the finish. Even so, I also didn't want it to end, because it's such a good book. This is definitely a great read for anyone that loves thrillers with a strong psychological bent.