“The Birthday Party” by Wendy Dranfield – The Imperfect Family

 

Short Summary

Wendy Dranfield has been putting her own experience in the world of crime as a coroner's assistant to good lately, pumping out one exciting crime novel after the next one. In her most recent work, titled The Birthday Party, we follow a mother as she frantically searches for her missing daughter who seemingly vanished into thin air in the light of day, surrounded by people. The longer the search goes, the more apparent it becomes there are people around her with something to hide.

Wendy Dranfield Stages a Tragic Disappearance

The concept of personal safety has become so deeply-rooted in human psychology, we seldom take the time to even acknowledge it anymore; it's only logical for any person to instinctively worry about their own safety, as well as the ones dear to them. However, as Kathy Hamilton is about to find out in The Birthday Party by Wendy Dranfield, nothing can ever completely guarantee a person's safety, especially if the threat comes from an unexpected direction.

Kathy is a relatively-happy woman, married, with a child, and on good terms with the rest of her family, for the most part at least. When her sister-in-law throws a birthday party, Kathy decides to have her daughter Charlotte attend, driving and leaving her there for the day. The last time she saw her was smiling across a lawn crowded with people, safely surrounded by friends and family.

However, when Kathy returns a few hours later, Charlotte is nowhere to be found, as if she had completely vanished into thin air. Nobody seems to have seen nor heard a thing, with the partying having proceeded normally and as planned. Devastated, Kathy doesn't sink into despair and joins up the search party for her missing daughter.

Though Kathy imagines she can count on the support of her family, the longer the tragedy goes on, the more strange occurrences seem to besiege her. To begin with, she can't get a hold of her babysitter, something which has never been a problem until today. Her eldest daughter seems particularly anxious and lacking in appetite, perhaps out of worry, or perhaps burdened by a terrible secret.

The search for Charlotte only becomes increasingly frantic as the efforts undertaken by both the police and volunteers net few results worth talking about, and Kathy begins to wonder how much she can trust the people around her. Long-buried secrets are slowly resurfacing, and she's about to discover her own family is about as far from perfect as can be.

A Mixing Bowl of Twists in The Birthday Party

Different authors all have their own approaches to the same topics and genres, and in my opinion, there is on one correct way to write a thriller or a mystery novel, despite certain formats and subjects being more popular than others. While some aim for total realism and plausibility, others sacrifice such virtues in favour of creativity, even if a little outlandish.

In my opinion, The Birthday Party belongs to the latter category of novels; Wendy Dranfield seems to utterly relish her own ability to weave an extremely complex and curved tapestry of a mystery. The premise is certainly intriguing, functioning quite well as the initial hook, and it doesn't take too long for the investigative action to kick off after that.

Already from the early going, we're treated to a few twists here and there, and while they start off light enough, they do become more meaningful and numerous as the story progresses. I can definitely see how people who are more into realistic procedures would find it unbelievable, but I believe this approach certainly has its charms.

For one, to be blunt and simple, it's entertaining when a mystery keeps slipping and sliding out of your grasp and you're constantly wrangle it with your own investigative lasso. It pushes the reader to keep on thinking and digesting the information they are being fed, and even if this isn't the most intellectually-charged story I've ever read, it's still a pleasant feeling when the author clearly respects their readers.

Second, There are some truly creative moments and unpredictable turns which successfully blindsided me, and even if not all of them were one hundred percent practical from a real-life point of view, I still enjoyed them because ultimately, they fit into the world the story is taking place in, a world where coincidences aren't all that infrequent.

The Frailty of Trust

At its heart, The Birthday Party is a thriller mystery before anything else, focusing on the investigation into Charlotte's disappearance. However, the paths on which this quest takes us also lead to the exploration of many interesting characters and themes revolving primarily around trust and secrets when placed in a family context.

Though at the start we're made to feel like the people surrounding Kathy are kind, gentle, and for all intents and purposes, normal, Wendy Dranfield chips away at this perception bit by bit, giving us more and more reasons to distrust the people surrounding our protagonist. I think she did a fantastic job in organically raising an atmosphere of suspense, one constantly leaving us uncertain about who, if anyone, can be trusted.

The many people hovering around our protagonist are also more interesting than they had to be, and we get fairly well-acquainted with many of them, especially when we're treated to their accounts of the fateful birthday party. As the reader, it felt like I was engaged in a game of spotting the liar, analyzing the claims and actions of each person and trying to weigh the significance of their secrets. I think it's safe to say we end up getting as well acquainted with them as an actual investigator would.

Kathy herself makes for an enjoyable and believable protagonist, instantly elevated above all others by her position as a victim in the tragic scenario she found herself in. She's the only person I felt like I could actually trust, and the author did an excellent job at communicating the torturous anguish she was feeling, as well as her unbreakable drive to move on forward and find her daughter at all costs.

While they do get a bit lost in the midst of the frantic investigation, there are some thoughtful observations and ruminations on the importance of trust and transparency between family members, on the power which secrets hold over those who carry them, and how they can ultimately tear unfortunate families apart.

The Final Verdict

The Birthday Party by Wendy Dranfield is a top-notch thriller mystery which encourages active participation from the reader, filled to the brim with creative twists and populated by interesting characters I found a real pleasure to examine.

If you're looking for a crime thriller centred on a solid vanishing puzzle and anchored in complicated family relations, then I think you'll thoroughly enjoy what this book has to offer.

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Wendy Dranfield Personal site Wendy Dranfield is a former coroner's assistant who decided to take her life down a slightly different path, opting to become a crime writer instead. She has already published a number of titles in the genre, including Shadow Falls, Cry for Help, Little Girl Take, and Gone to her Grave, just to name a few.