The Birthday Party

De: Shalini Boland

Narrado por: Clare Corbett

A party. A nightmare. A child gone without a trace.

It started out as a party: six little girls gliding and giggling at the ice rink to celebrate Natalie’s daughter’s eighth birthday.

But by Natalie’s next head count, it’s turned into a crime scene. Six children went onto the ice—and now there are just five. Nobody saw her niece, Elle, being taken. Nobody saw the person in a cartoon costume lure her quietly away.

Traumatised by what happened on her watch, Natalie spends the next decade supporting her sister, Jo, as the years since Elle’s abduction tick by. But as the tenth anniversary approaches, Jo becomes convinced that someone is stalking her—someone who knows the truth about that day on the ice.

As long-buried secrets start to surface, the sisters must relive the horror of losing Elle—and watch the world as they know it shatter before their eyes.

©2025 by Shalini Boland. (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Intriguing read

The characters are unique and well drawn. I wanted to keep reading without a break.

It was ok

Unfortunately there was a good bit of repetition which usually leads to a dnf for me. I think it’s unnecessary, used for filler or word count. I have liked so many books by this author so I pushed thru. I didn’t get a deep connection to the characters though and instead of having any sympathy for Jo I found I was judging her behavior which may be what the author wanted but it didn’t sit right. There is enough there to be curious about what actually happened. And there are some good twists at the end.

Wow! The twists!

I love it when I can’t figure out who did what and why! Well done Shalini Boland!

Thoroughly enjoyed!!

I love the narrator so much. This book was well written and the twist at the end was a nice closing to the end. The relationship between the sisters was palpable. The hurt and guilt felt by each family member was felt. I look forward to reading more from this author!

Not so great

The plot is okay, if the book was about 3 hours. The last hour was good with some interesting twists at the end, but in the middle it got very boring. I bought this one because I am a fan of this author, but not up to par

characters I liked and situations I found interesting and compelling

I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the writing style, I enjoyed everything about it. I guess who I thought it was going to be and I was wrong, The scenario played itself out very well.

Great story

This is a great story that goes between what happened when a little girl disappears from her cousin's birthday party and now how it's still affecting the family. When the ten year anniversary comes, a new clue is discovered. The twists at the end are very unexpected.

Great story.

U really enjoyed this book. it held my interest throughout. I will look for more from this author.

Unpredictable!

I enjoyed the story overall although I felt the story was a little slow on some parts. I definitely didn’t see that crazy twist at the end though!

Boring

This is not this author’s best work. The story went on and on and on……the only part of the book that interested me was the last 15 minutes. Otherwise, a real snooze fest.