Title: The Lindbergh Nanny
Author: Mariah Fredericks
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Release Date: November 15, 2022
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.
This was an interesting historical fiction novel.
The book is narrated by Charlie Lindbergh's nanny, Betty Gow before he was kidnapped and months later found dead.
in 1939, Betty Gow is taking care of the baby when he disappears from his crib at night. A ramson note is left behind. When the police start investigating the crime, they immediately zoom in on Betty and make her a suspect. She was the last person to see the baby alive, she was a single woman going out with a Norwegian sailor named Henry, and she was a foreigner.
In Betty's words, she describes how she got the position of a nanny. She didn't like Charles Lindbergh. She thought he was an odd man. She especially didn't like the way he treated baby Charlie. The child's mother, Anne Morrow was a nice woman but Betty couldn't understand how she could leave the child for weeks at a time and then wondered why the child would cling to the nanny and not to her when she came back.
The Lindbergh Nanny had my attention from the very first page since it's based on a truly horrible crime with too many unanswered questions. Was it an inside job? Probably. Do I believe Betty had something to do with it? I doubt it.
Cliffhanger: No
4/5 Fangs
A complimentary copy was provided by Minotaur Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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