The Guilty One: A Novel - Softcover

"A page-turner"--Cosmopolitan (UK)

"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

"An accomplished first novel and a good bet for book groups."--Booklist

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

"Sophisticated, suspenseful, unsettling, and highly recommended: a terrific debut from an author to watch."--Lee Child, #1 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

"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 hits some strong emotional beats, and fans of Vanessa Diffenbaugh's The Language of Flowers will find much to like here--Library Journal

"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

London solicitor Daniel Hunter finds his life forever changed when he meets Sebastian, an 11-year-old boy accused of murdering a little boy—a case that forces him to confront his own troubled childhood in foster care and unearths memories he'd long buried as past and present collide. Original. 100,000 first printing.