Sophisticated, suspenseful, unsettling, and highly recommended: a terrific debut from an author to watch.
The Guilty One offers that rare combination of a beautifully crafted story, inhabited with characters we haven’t known before (but won’t forget)—and a story that will keep you turning the pages late into the night.
Thought provoking, brave and challenging, this book is an unsettling and compulsive read.
One of the best debuts I’ve ever encountered
One of the most readable, emotionally intense novels of the year, and a debut one at that. Lisa Ballantyne pulls off the key writer’s trick of getting us to care about the characters; by the end of the first chapter, you will be comprehensively on the hook.
An accomplished first novel and a good bet for book groups.
A page-turner
On one level, Lisa Ballantyne’s The Guilty One delivers riveting courtroom drama that is unflinchingly true to its characters. At another level, its personal story resonates with love, forgiveness, and the possibility of redemption. The Guilty One will touch your heart even as it leaves you unsettled.
Lisa Ballantyne has written a first novel that is both moving and suspenseful; richly detailed, yet with the eerie simplicity of a parable
The tales of two troubled boys at individual crossroads are interwoven in Ballantyne's first novel. Daniel Hunter grew up on the mean streets, with a drugged-out mother and an attitude that landed him in constant trouble. Removed from the mother's home, the English boy bounced from foster home to foster home until he finally ended up at Minnie's. The Irish Minnie, a widow whose only child has died, gave up nursing and moved to the country with her family, but she suffered twin tragedies that have left her alone with her animals and small farm, eking out a living selling eggs and produce and taking in foster kids. When Daniel arrives, Minnie tries to mold the disturbed and violent young boy into a man and eventually earns his respect, but years later, as a grown attorney, he and Minnie have parted ways and he no longer speaks to the woman who saved him. When he receives news that causes him to reflect on the years he put between himself and the affable, loving Minnie, he plunges into a case involving another vulnerable but possibly murderous boy named Sebastian. When Sebastian, whose wealthy parents hide a multitude of sins from the world, is charged with killing an 8-year-old playmate, Daniel must reach back into his own past to defend the child and prevent him from spending his formative years in prison, locked up like a monster. Ballantyne, who is Scottish, exhibits comfortable familiarity with the British legal and social systems, and the story she tells is both absorbing and compelling. This very lengthy novel takes the reader through Daniel's childhood and both the trial preparation and the trial itself. The prose is strong, but Daniel and Sebastian are so damaged that it can be difficult to feel empathy for them. A captivating debut, but Daniel and Sebastian prove difficult to like, and readers may find themselves unsatisfied when turning the last page.
Sophisticated, suspenseful, unsettling, and highly recommended: a terrific debut from an author to watch.” — Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Lisa Ballantyne has written a first novel that is both moving and suspenseful; richly detailed, yet with the eerie simplicity of a parable” — Joyce Carol Oates, New York Times bestselling author
“The Guilty One offers that rare combination of a beautifully crafted story, inhabited with characters we haven’t known before (but won’t forget)—and a story that will keep you turning the pages late into the night.” — Joyce Maynard, author of Labor Day
“On one level, Lisa Ballantyne’s The Guilty One delivers riveting courtroom drama that is unflinchingly true to its characters. At another level, its personal story resonates with love, forgiveness, and the possibility of redemption. The Guilty One will touch your heart even as it leaves you unsettled.” — Hallie Ephron, author of There Was an Old Woman
“Thought provoking, brave and challenging, this book is an unsettling and compulsive read.” — Rosamund Lupton, author of Sister and Afterwards
“One of the best debuts I’ve ever encountered” — Daily Record
“One of the most readable, emotionally intense novels of the year, and a debut one at that. Lisa Ballantyne pulls off the key writer’s trick of getting us to care about the characters; by the end of the first chapter, you will be comprehensively on the hook.” — Richard Madeley, Richard and Judy's Book Club, Autumn 2012 Pick
“A page-turner” — Cosmopolitan (UK)
“A captivating debut” — Kirkus Reviews
“An accomplished first novel and a good bet for book groups.” — Booklist
“A child-on-child murder drives Ballantyne’s searing debut . . . [A] scalding exploration of childhood violence, adult refusal to forgive, and redemptive love.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Ballantyne blurs the line between right and wrong like a double-edged sword in this methodical psychological thriller. The age-old struggle between good and evil takes on new meaning through characters so jaded by life; she makes you question it yourself. — criminalelement.com
Ballantyne hits some strong emotional beats, and fans of Vanessa Diffenbaugh’s The Language of Flowers will find much to like here — Library Journal
An accomplished first novel and a good bet for book groups.
Ballantyne blurs the line between right and wrong like a double-edged sword in this methodical psychological thriller. The age-old struggle between good and evil takes on new meaning through characters so jaded by life; she makes you question it yourself.
