Book Review: Changeling

A cold case presented as a weekly true-crime podcast series, Matt Wesolowski's Changeling is a riveting thriller, expertly weaving in elements of  horror to terrifying effect. Thus what opens as a mystifying disappearance of seven-year-old Alfie Marsden on a Christmas Eve in 1988 becomes fodder for online journalist Scott King's Six Stories podcast, leading him to retrace the events through a variety of interviews, trying to find out what actually happened that fateful night, only to confront a chilling discovery that, well, literally changes everything. Wentshire Forest, the scene of the disappearance, is almost a second character in the story, with Wesolowski imbuing the place with mystical qualities that makes it unsettling and spooky. The unique podcast-like structure needs a little getting used to, but the writing remains vivid, while simultaneously tackling themes of sexual abuse and manipulation with great sensitivity.