Reading Between the Wines book review #107/115 for 2023:
Rating: 2 🍷 🍷
Book: The Father
Author: John Nicholl
Releases September 20, 2023!

Sipping thoughts: I usually like John Nicholl’s book and I know this was based on a real-life story but it really did not do it for me. The story itself was sad and dark, which is fine in itself but a little hard to follow. My rating is not the norm so please don’t let it stop you from trying it out. The ending was a very huge surprise and added a star to the rating for me.

Cheers and thank you to @BoldwoodBooks and @Netgalley for an advanced copy of @TheFather.

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Thirty years ago Anthony Mailer was a seven year old boy taken from his bed and trapped in Dr Galbraith's basement.

Now he is a journalist, a husband and father but still struggles with the trauma of his childhood. In order to save his marriage he had to stop hiding from what happened and deal with it once and for all. But digging into the past holds dangers.

Anthony is writing a book about what happened to him as a child. This story is told from multiple POV's as we delve into how this trauma affected Anthony as well as his family.

This was beautifully written and will tug at your heart strings.

I highly recommend this series.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Love John Nichols books and this so no different. The thrill in this narrative is a steadily rising tide, pulling you deeper into its mysteries until you're submerged in its gripping twists.

30 years ago Anthony Mailer was a 7 year old boy trapped in Dr Galbraiths basement. Now he is a journalist, a husband and a father and he is struggling with his past.
The 3 books in the Galbraith series are all well written and keep you gripped from start to end
A must read!!

I don’t have the first two books in the series to find out how the series begins, but I would like to get them one day

.The Father is gripping right from the start. It’s dark, twisty disturbing and chilling. In fact, it’s every word I can think of to describe this chilling novel. The events are horrific. The author gets right into the thoughts, feelings and experiences and that’s what makes it even more scary.

Thanks to Paul Nicholl and Rachel¡s Random Resources for my eARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

4.5 stars

This book was intense. If this is what his books are going to be like Im in. ! I was led on another path and then back again. His characters are perfect and I was certainly connected to them.

It is an interesting read. Must read the other books before this as it’s not a standalone. Does contain triggers. It is gripping and twisty.

A dark and difficult book to read but one where you. could easily see how anyone given the right circumstances could end up seeking retribution.
A book that shares the impact of major events on the victims family, friends alongside police and social services too. I found it hard to contemplate the collateral damage that occurs as a result of COS getting the best possible result. Innocent lives changed forever.

Anthony is a victim of Dr Galiath , he is the little boy that he kept in the basement. Dark and disturbing a look into the mind of real life monsters.

The Galbraith Series by Author - John Nicholl
A note from the author: While fictional, these books were inspired by actual events. They draw on the author's experiences as a police officer and child protection social worker. The story contains content that some readers may find upsetting. They are dedicated to survivors everywhere.
The Doctor - Book 1 of 3
The Mailer family are oblivious to the terrible danger that enters their lives when seven-year-old Anthony is referred to the child guidance service by the family GP following the breakdown of his parent's marriage.
Fifty-eight-year-old Dr David Galbraith, a sadistic, predatory paedophile employed as a consultant child psychiatrist, has already murdered one child in the soundproofed cellar below the South Wales Georgian townhouse he shares with his wife and two young daughters.
Anthony becomes Galbraith's latest obsession.
The Wife - Book 2 of 3
Twenty-nine-year-old Cynthia Galbraith is serving a life sentence for murder.
When the prison counsellor suggests Cynthia write a personal journal exploring the events that drove her to murder, she figures she has all the time in the world and minimal, if anything, to lose. So she begins to write, revealing the secrets that haunt her and the truths she's never dared tell.
The Father - Book 3 of 3
Thirty years ago, Anthony Mailer was a seven-year-old boy trapped in Dr Galbraith'sGalbraith's basement. Now he's a journalist, a husband and a father. But no matter how far he's come, he is still that scared little boy sometimes.
To save his marriage, he has to stop hiding from what happened and deal with it once and for all.
Review
I was asked if I would like to be on tour for The Father, Book 3 of the Galbraith series. Having not read anything by this author and liking the sound of the plot, I was happy to agree. However, as soon as I read the first page of The Father, I decided I needed to read the first two books in the series first. I was so glad I did; Wow, what an incredible series.
The author writes in a straightforward, no holds barred manner. As a result, the books are insightful, knowledgeable, absorbing, touching, intricate, sickening, incomprehensible, heartbreaking, and astonishing.
The characters are realistically portrayed so much, so I found myself getting emotionally entangled in the plot. It was discomforting to read how trauma undulates through every person's life it touches, even those not directly involved and with such varied consequences.
It is a challenging read but well worth finding the time to do so. I will certainly be catching up with past novels by this author.
I want to thank publishers Boldwood Books, author John Nicholl's and Rachel's Random Resources for a place on the tour and a copy to read and review.

Reading books based on pedophile rings is one of the hardest things to do - even when they are fictionalized. It fills me with so much despair for the youth that have been and will be subjected to these monsters of society.

Needless to say, I read The Father with an enormous weight bearing down on me. It is incredible that the police are required to let the atrocities keep occurring, so they can appropriately cross their t’s and dot their i’s. I just feel like some things should be an automatic if it is undeniable proof.

Nicholl has done justice to this story that he took from his own experiences as a police officer and CPS worker. While a difficult read, it is an important one. We cannot be indifferent to the cruelty that is happening to and awaiting some of our youth.

Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources, Boldwood Books, and John Nicholl for this #gifted review copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily!

I was a little worried going into this, knowing what the subject matter was, and the job John used to do, but I neednt have worried at all.
This story is told from the first person view of Anthony (Tony) Miller. He is writing a book about his experiences at the hands of Dr Galbraith, one of the most despicable characters ever written in ficiton, and hopefully not too closely based on anyone real, although I fear that may be a fantasy.
The experiences he had while kidnapped and held in Dr Galbraiths basement are jeapordising his marriage, and he has decided writing a book will be cathartic and hopefully rid him of his demons.
As he interviews everyone involved, including his parents, his sister, Dr Galbraiths wife, and some of the police and other social workers involved, he learns more truths than he was expecting.
This is a brilliant engaging story, one which, despite its quite dark subject matter, was hard to put down. It is at no point graphic, only ever hints to what takes place.
The story is about the people, and the effects the events had on all of them, both at the time and after thirty or more years. It shows police and social workers are people too, and they are psychologically and often physically impacted by some of the cases they have to deal with.
It also shows how much power can be wielded over someone, how fear trumps all logic.
Every single character has their part to play in this, and there are a couple of great twists along the way, which I was not expecting at all.
A truly brilliant book from the first page to the last.

This book follows The Doctor and The Wife, telling the profound effect that Dr Galbraith had upon young Anthony Mailer. The book is set years later, when Anthony is an adult and has a family of his own. He is still tortured by his childhood experiences. His wife suggests he write a book as a means of processing the trauma - almost as a therapeutic exercise. Anthony becomes obsessed with finding the other man who took part in his kidnap. He interviews Galbraith’s wife, his parents and others to attempt to get to the truth. In the meantime his life is crumbling around him.
This is one of the saddest books I have ever read. The ending was heartbreaking. Brilliant writing again from John Nicholl.

This is a brilliantly written book, that deals with a really dark difficult subject sensitively. This book was so tough to read, but was so eye-opening - Please don't read this book if abuse is a trigger for you, because this unflinching, raw account genuinely broke my heart. This story is fiction but based on real cases worked on by John himself.
The 3 star rating is just a guide as opinion on this narrative will be subjective.

The book has an unusual style of storytelling. It is fiction but was written in a narrative style as the storyteller describes his journey in learning about his past as a child victim of a pedophile ring by interviewing the various people connected to the case. It has a deep effect on you while you go through the author’s “journey, but one thing is real, it will make you sad for this narrator who tries so hard to move on but has to relive the one thing everyone wanted to forget.

Much as I love the story behind it, I would have preferred more action and a detailed description of what really happened. Still, it’s an interestingly good book.

Thanks @Netgalley and the Publisher for the ARC of this book.
Pub Date: 20th Sept.

This was a really unusual style of writing. Although the book is fiction, it is written in an autobiographical style as the narrator describes his journey to discover how he became the child victim of a predatory sex offender, through “interviewing” the various people connected to the case. I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn’t actually a journey of discovery but a fictionalised account. I thought the narrator’s lack of memory of the “attack” he suffered quite a weak element to the story - would he be as traumatised as that if he had absolutely no recollection of what had happened to him?

Because of the style, there aren’t the usual twists and turns that you’d expect in a thriller, although what happened to the victim is revealed in stages and there were a few surprises. I found it an interesting read.

The author has worked in this field and his knowledge of police and social work procedure comes through clearly. The dilemma faced by the professionals involved in this fictional case are no doubt a reflection of the dilemmas faced in live cases.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first book by this author &, yes, I have started with the third in the series. Admittedly, reading the other two would have given me more background but this book reads well as a standalone.
Please take heed of the author’s note at the beginning.

Anthony Mailer, a thirty something family man, was abused as a young child by Dr David Galbraith. The doctor is now a convicted paedophile.
Mailer has reached a point in his life where he needs to make sense of what happened & begins to write a book, he talks to his own family & those involved with Galbraith too.
There is real grit to this story & some parts are chilling to contemplate. It does not delve in to intense detail but that is not required, as all crime thrillers should allow, your imagination can fill in the blanks.

I’m definitely going to read the first two in this series. Recommended.

First, I want to thank John Nicholl, Boldwood Books, NetGalley and Rachel’s Random Resources for providing me with this book so I can bring you this review.

O.M.G John Nicholl’s The Father will have you wondering what the heck you just read!! This was one seriously dark, sick, twisted, mind bending book that totally messes with your mind and thensome. It is unlike any other book that I have read and I have read a lot of psychological thrillers!

I am just being blunt this book is not for everyone. There are a ton of events in this book that for many it will be hard to swallow. Even though I am an open minded reader some of the events struck a chord with me.

Even though this is a fictional book I am shocked that this is based on true events. I can’t imagine the things John Nicholl saw while on duty as a police officer and child protection social worker.

The Father is part 3 in the Galbraith Series. I had not read any of John’s books in the past so I was not familiar with his writing style nor the series prior. It was easy to pick up but I am the type of person that likes to read the series in order. Having said that, I am not sure how the others compare to this one.

Even though I found Dr. Galbraith to be a very sick, twisted and perverse man the storyline surrounding him was fascinating. However, by me saying this I don’t approve of any actions that unfolded in this tale.

I could not help but have empathy for all the lives Dr. Galbraith ruined emotionally, mentally and even physically.

Oh I was not prepared at all for the jaw dropping mind blowing ending that John had in store for us!! Just totally shocked!!! WOW!!! What a way to end a story!

What you don’t know can hurt you.
Thirty years ago Anthony Mailer was a seven-year-old boy trapped in Dr Galbraith’s basement. Now he’s a journalist, a husband and a father. But no matter how far he’s come, at times he’s still that scared little boy.
In order to save his marriage, he has to stop hiding from what happened and deal with it once and for all.
But digging into the past holds dangers Anthony never imagined . . .

This is a wonderful addition to this thrilling series!
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and action with wonderful world building that adds so much to the story.
Such a thrilling read that I couldn't put it down.
Can't wait to read more of these.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own honest voluntary review.

John Nicholl has been one of my go-to authors for some time now. His stories always keep me glued to the pages. The Father is the third book in the Dr Galbraith series, but you can read it as a standalone, but believe me, the first two are well worth your time.

The Father is the story of Anthony, who was a little boy in the first book. Now he is an adult and as a journalist decides he is going to face up to his traumatic past by properly investigating events on the lead up to and during the grooming he received from Dr Galbraith himself. Once this is complete he plans to write a book about everything he went through. As he digs through the past it begins to bring everything flooding back for all involved.

It is a story that did make me emotional. I don't think anyone could read this without it affecting them. Anger from the fact that the people who should be helping do what they legally need to do but that's it. Sadness from the recollections of people from the time. I was almost torn apart... knowing there are children out there who still experience similar things, it read that real.

John Nicholls experience from his work as a police officer and a child protection social worker is crystal clear. This is what has made the full series such a harrowing and chilling read. The full series is inspired by real life events,which makes it all the more unsettling for me.

The realism in this story and its characters gave it the power to sicken me. I was so caught up in it all, throughout the three books. I was as entangled with the plot from The Father as I was with The Doctor. John Nicholls writing is as compelling as it was at the start. I cried for Anthony, totally broken heart at one point, but I still couldn't stop reading.

A skilfully told tale of how one twisted monster can cause so much damage to so many people. Thanks to Rachel's Random Resources,Boldwood Books,John Nicholl and NetGalley.