This is the third novel from ex-journalist Simon Lelic, and it centres on Leo Curtice, a lawyer assigned to defend Daniel Blake, a young boy accused of murdering his classmate Felicity Forbes. It examines the results of the subsequent press coverage, Leo’s attempts to get Daniel to open up, and the resulting disintegration of Leo’s family life. The Child Who seems to be a novel about crime. And it is, but not simply in the way it first appears. It’s a novel about different types of ‘crime’; about different types of failings. As the case progresses, Leo’s personal life deteriorates in proportion to his increasing understanding of his troubled client. Unprepared for the media furore which ensues following his acceptance of the case, the pressure on Leo’s family, and his inability to ease it, results in the family’s eventual dissipation. Certain mitigating factors come to light which cause Leo to pity Daniel; the root of his wife and daughter’s chagrin, and they too start to be harassed by the public as a result.

This is a focused book in the sense that Lelic has something quite deliberate to say about responsibility and blame; never quite pointing the finger at social services or absent parents but giving them the odd pointed look here and there. It also casts a scathing glance at the role of the press, which is depicted less than favourably for applying pressure to the families and encouraging public animosity. Leo’s behaviour towards his own daughter is certainly flawed and Lelic seems to be drawing parallels between these two dysfunctional families; though they are, of course, in entirely different situations. He emphasises the way a parent’s actions can have profound and lifelong implications for a child by suggesting that responsibility for Daniel’s actions lies elsewhere as well as with the boy. What happens to Leo’s daughter Ellie is also, largely, his fault. Daniel himself is enigmatic; he seems more to be a composite of the failures of social services and distracted parents than a multi-dimensional character. Which is perhaps the point. Certain forms of media depict someone like Daniel entirely mono-dimensionally; and as the book progresses we become frustrated by our inability to glean more of his character, though Lelic does offer some degree of explanation, if not excuse. There is a sense that Lelic is trying to give us the ‘full’ picture; the one the press is less likely to divulge, by hinting at the underlying causes of Daniel’s behaviour.

It seems somewhat strange that Felicity herself is never really considered, and her family never feature in the book at all. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the novel was, to a degree, ‘off centre’ due to this. But this perspective has its advantages in that Leo’s story in one that is generally never considered; in the media or elsewhere. When such a crime as the one Daniel has committed takes places one hears about the victim and the perpetrator, not the lawyer and his personal and moral struggles. And it’s an interesting perspective to consider. The ethical questions lawyers deal with in a case like this are difficult; and there is perhaps no right answer. Lelic’s prose is light and readable, I did find the ‘twist’ at the end somewhat predictable though. I’d guessed the outcome quite early on, but that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy getting there. The Child Who is a compulsive read, and much like following a high profile case in the press, it unravels like a roll of string we’re never entirely sure we’ve gotten to the end of.

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