Ballantyne weaves a fine tale of family drama, dark secrets, and the past's effect on the present...heart-wrenching.
Publisher's Weekly
Ballantyne has a natural gift for storytelling and the central narrative here is well-developed and fast-moving. She evidently cares for her principal characters, and, because she does so, readers are likely to do likewise.
The Scotsman
A ... Read moresweet novel of love, redemption, and loss that chronicles one family's struggle with a difficult past.
Kirkus
Flitting effortlessly between past and present, this is a suspenseful, gritty and emotionally charged journey of an estranged father and daughter, exploring the strength of family ties and our huge capacity for forgiveness.
Mature Times
This is a subject that grips the attention like a vice
Daily Mail on The Guilty One
Thought provoking, brave and challenging, this book is an unsettling and compulsive read
Rosamund Lupton, bestselling author of Sister and Afterwards, on The Guilty One
Sophisticated, suspenseful, unsettling, and highly recommended: a terrific debut from an author to watch
Lee Child on The Guilty One
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 on The Guilty One
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 on The Guilty One
[a] moving, insightful debut . . . It's easy to see why this caused such a stir at Frankfurt last year. If it isn't this year's Before I Go To Sleep, I'll eat my laptop
Guardian on The Guilty One
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