The Child Who

There are no definitive answers to this question, of course. But what infuriated me as I started my research into the Bulger case, the Mary Bell trial and other similar cases, was how reluctant so many people seemed to be, in more general terms, even to ask it. I began to get a sense of why Lee, on the radio, had sounded so weary. It was after five; maybe he’d simply had a long day. But maybe, too, he was tired of the sensationalism, the puddle-deep journalism that seeks to answer, in rapid-fire bullet points, ‘WHY KIDS KILL!’.

And worse: since the Bulger trial, we (at least in England) seem to have gone backwards. At the time Venables and Thompson were put on trial, the courts were still obliged to consider whether a child aged fourteen or under was able to tell right from wrong (yes, was the answer in the cases of Venables and Thompson). Today in England, this is a done deal. If you’re ten (in Scotland it’s twelve, up recently from eight), you’re legally responsible. You’re not old enough to smoke, to have sex, to get a tattoo: the assumption is that the decision would be emotionally beyond you. But if you break the law, you know exactly what you’re doing.

This is the main reason The Child Who is set when it is. There is a back story, of course (Daniel’s story; the bulk of the book), as well as a contemporary strand, but for all my research about the Bulger case in particular, I wanted events in the novel to take place at a time existing legislation applied. The book is about Leo Curtice and his family – about the effects of Leo’s involvement in such a high-profile and emotionally engaging case – but it is also about his perspective of the law. He is forced to consider, virtually for the first time in his career, how things could be done differently. How, for all our sakes, they could be made better.


Questions for discussion:

1. After Leo’s first meeting with Daniel Blake, he describes his client to his colleagues as looking ‘[just] like a scared little boy’. Why do you think this provokes such a scathing reaction, even before Daniel has been convicted of a crime?

2. Leo is warned by his boss that the Daniel Blake case will be ‘like nothing you have experienced before’. Why is Leo so quick to dismiss Howard’s concerns? Is he being naive? Reckless? Or realistic that the public will realise he is not necessarily ‘on Daniel Blake’s side’?

3. With increasing intensity, Megan asks Leo to give up the case. Is she entitled to ask? Is Leo entitled to refuse?

4. What is your reaction to Daniel’s experiences at school, as recounted to Leo by Daniel’s former head teacher? Where do you think the responsibility for Daniel’s failure to integrate at school lies?

5. In his dealings with Daniel, does Leo overstep his professional responsibilities? Does he neglect his personal ones? How much sympathy do you have for him in his attempt to balance the two?

6. Leo tells Daniel, ‘I think, if you plead guilty, you’d be taking on more than you deserve to. I think you’d be letting the rest of us off the hook.’ What does he mean by this? Is he right?

7. Does Leo miss any signs that Ellie’s troubles are more serious than he has assumed? How would you, in his position, have reacted to the evidence of her distress differently?

8. In spite of his actions, is Vincent Blake a good man? Would you say he is motivated by selfish or selfless concerns?

9. Who, ultimately, is to blame for Daniel’s crime? Do you feel, as Leo seems to, that Daniel Blake should be considered a victim too? Who else in the book, other than Felicity, might also be considered a victim?

10. Restorative/reparative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of the victims, the offender and the wider community, typically involving dialogue between the parties involved. Around the time of the James Bulger case in England, for example, there was a similar case in Norway. The young offenders, rather than being prosecuted, remained in their community and were treated with compassion and counselling. Would such an approach work in the UK? Should it be tried?

‘A quietly excellent legal thriller’ Marcel Berlins, The Times

‘Gripping . . . Lelic, author of the highly acclaimed Rupture, unpicks the layers of vengeance, exploitation and fear that accrue around children that kill, and examines the terrible fall-out for anyone who goes against the vindictive current . . . a compelling, thought-provoking page-turner’ Psychologies magazine

‘By page three, Simon Lelic’s harrowing and haunting novel The Child Who has you utterly in its snares. A daring writer but also a deeply open-hearted one, he renders his flawed but sympathetic characters with the most tender of hands, heightening the tale’s suspense and drawing us even closer’ Megan Abbott, author of The End of Everything

 ‘An excellent psychological crime thriller from one of the genre’s rising stars’ Metro Top 10 things to do this weekend feature

‘Shades of the James Bulger case hover over Lelic’s third novel . . . The less prurient writers who tackle this theme often adopt kid gloves only to strangle the life out of their work, but Lelic keeps his thriller exciting while handling the material sensitively’ Four stars, Daily Telegraph

 ‘Men fear death as children fear the dark, said Francis Bacon. In Simon Lelic's provocative (and contentious) The Child Who, children and death are chillingly combined in a juvenile dispenser of murder . . . The author's earlier books, Rupture and The Facility, showed a readiness to tackle deeply uncomfortable issues; the former dealt with a teacher murdering his pupils and a colleague in a school shooting. Lelic's unconventional take on bullying and alienated children now appears a dry run for this new novel, in which the reader's capacity for either outrage or sympathy is uneasily manipulated by the author . . . One of the most intriguing things about Lelic's intelligent novel is its steadfast refusal to take sides. Is Leo right to risk the love and respect of his own family in working out a personal agenda, however laudable? Lelic places such conclusions within the individual conscience of the reader. And that, as much as anything else, shows him as a writer to whom attention must be paid’ Independent

‘A provincial solicitor finds his world shaken to the core when he has to defend a 12-year-old boy accused of murdering a young female schoolmate. Fascinating moral issues are played out’ Daily Mirror

 ‘A ruthless, realistic novel of crime and punishment’ Saga

‘Earlier this year, I noted that Simon Lelic, after only two novels, is an absolute must-read author. His third novel, the tense and ultimately heart-breaking The Child Who is released in January, and is, to my mind at least, his best work to date, and surely one of the top books of 2012’ ReaderDad blog

‘A fast, gripping read. Simon Lelic is a writer to watch’ Bookbag

‘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’ Bookgeeks blog

‘Lelic follows his acclaimed debut with an equally gripping psychological thriller also inspired by horrific real-life crime’ Publishers Weekly starred review