Friday Fiction: Blacklands by Belinda Bauer (January 2010)

Good Idea. Bad Delivery.
Review by Kim Cantrell

Steven Lamb is a 12-year-old who lives with his mother, brother Davey, and Nan in Exmoor, England.

Eighteen-years-ago, Steven’s Uncle Billy disappeared. Soon thereafter, Avery Arnold, a child molester, was arrested and confessed to killing six other children and burying their bodies.

Billy was not one of the recovered and Nan refuses to believe that he is dead.

In an effort to heal his family by giving his Nan closure, Steven is determined to find the body of his Uncle Billy. Every day he digs holes all over the moor, hoping to find anything that proves his Uncle Billy will not be returning home.

When his extracirricular activity proves fruitless, Steven begins a cat-and-mouse game with Avery Arnold.

Will he finally solve the almost two decade old mystery?

Belinda Bauer has an excellent plot here; so much potential for an edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller and mystery.

Unfortunately, it all falls flat.

Blacklands starts out slow and never picks up the pace.

And while I think the story line is one that could easily be reworked into a real nail biter, the ending would have to be trashed and recreated altogether.

I think Belinda Bauer has much potential so Blacklands won’t keep me from reading any of her future works.

I’ll be sure to let you know how it works out.