Riddle Child is a powerful read, both poignant in tone and as page-turning as a thriller.

Alexander is an autistic child. His mother Ingrid is worn out, emotionally and in every other way, by trying to care for and love a son who never once has acknowledged her existence except to bite and kick and scream in terror. His father Dawid, once the life and soul of their small town community, had given up and taken his own life and gradually former friends and supporters drift away, confused and repulsed by this uncontrollable child. It is their housekeeper Miriam who manages somehow to soothe and pacify him, and whose steadfast loyalty becomes Ingrid’s only source of comfort.

The child is terrified of water and in particular of taking a bath. It is as if he is afraid he will be sucked down the plug hole. How, then, is it possible that at nine years old he is found floating face down in an overflowing tub early one morning, drowned, with bruises on his neck and the marks of abuse clearly visible on his frail body?

Is it murder or accidental death? What will the autopsy reveal? Can the intricate workings of Alexander’s locked up mind ever be uncovered or understood?