Growing Suspicion: The Fate of Mary Rose, by Caroline Blackwood, reviewed

“She was dead before I became aware of her existence.” The menacing opening line of this gripping novel is not about Mary Rose of the title, but about another six-year-old girl, Margaret Sutton, who has been kidnapped, raped and murdered in the woods of Kent.

The story is told from the perspective of Mary Rose’s father, Rowan Anderson, who spends most of his time in London, writing a biography of the scientist Hertha Ayrton and feuding with his possessive girlfriend Gloria.