Thank you Minotaur Books/Netgalley #partner, for the advanced copy of The Lindbergh Nanny in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: November 15, 2022
Summary:
Mariah Fredericks’s The Lindbergh Nanny is powerful, propulsive novel about America’s most notorious kidnapping through the eyes of the woman who found herself at the heart of this deadly crime.
When the most famous toddler in America, Charles Lindbergh, Jr., is kidnapped from his family home in New Jersey in 1932, the case makes international headlines. Already celebrated for his flight across the Atlantic, his father, Charles, Sr., is the country’s golden boy, with his wealthy, lovely wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, by his side. But there’s someone else in their household—Betty Gow, a formerly obscure young woman, now known around the world by another name: the Lindbergh Nanny.
A Scottish immigrant deciphering the rules of her new homeland and its East Coast elite, Betty finds Colonel Lindbergh eccentric and often odd, Mrs. Lindbergh kind yet nervous, and Charlie simply a darling. Far from home and bruised from a love affair gone horribly wrong, Betty finds comfort in caring for the child, and warms to the attentions of handsome sailor Henrik, sometimes known as Red. Then, Charlie disappears.
Suddenly a suspect in the eyes of both the media and the public, Betty must find the truth about what really happened that night, in order to clear her own name—and to find justice for the child she loves.
My thoughts:
As soon as I heard about this book, I knew I had to read it. I’ve heard about the Lindbergh kidnapping but have never actually read anything about it.
I loved how this story was told from the nanny’s perspective – who better to tell the story than someone who spent so much time with the child. Having been a babysitter for so long, my heart went out to Betty once the child had been discovered missing. Her devastation is so palpable and it is clear the love she felt for that child – something that when you are with children day in and day out, you cannot help but develop that kind of attachment, which I totally understand.
This book gave such an insightful look into the days leading up to the kidnapping and the time after. While it is a fictionalized story, it had a true crime feel and I loved how there were direct quotes and transcripts mixed in throughout the story. It all seemed to be perfectly balanced to tell a very captivating story that me completely invested in what was happening and left me wanting to read more – again, this is why I love reading in this genre. Because I wasn’t that familiar with all the small details of the case, I felt this book to have a bit of suspense in where it was ultimately leading to…and if you are not familiar with the case, I highly recommend not Googling anything before reading either.
This was a well-written and insightful account of such a famous kid-napping case and Mariah Fredericks clearly has done her research. I recommend this to anyone interested in true crime or this case in particular.
