Who did you blame for Billy’s disappearance? Why do you suppose he wasn’t found by the authorities? Did you have any theories about what happened to the boy?
I honestly thought by the last 3rd of the book that maybe he had just left. It was barely addressed and no one seemed disturbed by what the police or trial concluded. They just all went their own ways. I also found it odd that Emilio mentioned when he first met Thirza that he was doing “research” and asked multiple times about the “missing boy”. This led me to believe he was investigating it or writing a book. However, that plot line was pretty quickly dropped and never mentioned again which was odd. The way it was wrapped up at the end was very unsatisfying.
completely agree - Emilio’s “research” was never followed up on, there was a lot of disconnect throughout the whole book.
I was convinced that he had died. No ransom requests and the bloody clothes were good red herrings.
At one point I wondered if Piers had anything to do with it - that he’d figured out Billy wasn’t his son, and had him spirited away.
It’s entirely possible he just left, but Thirza or Columbine should have picked up on it. The story about him going home to look for his hat was very muddled –several different versions surfaced. I had a sense he would show up later n the story, since he was so often mentioned.
Columbine was suppose to be watching him and she let him go back to the house to get his hat. He should not have gone alone. The people who grabbed him took him far away from Corfu. So maybe that is the reason he was not found. But I am surprised that the couple that found him and took him to the US did not try harder to find out what his history was. Then his bloody clothes were found and it was assumed he was dead. I thought his mother had had an affair which had resulted in his birth.So thought his biological father had found him.
I think I blamed the chaos of the invasion, rather than a certain person. I wondered if he had been accidentally killed. But as the story developed, I did wonder if it was a kidnapping attempt, disrupted by the chaos. I would have liked this part of the story to be developed more. I wanted to know what happened with Billy’s initial disappearance, what the authorities actually did, and then what happened with the American couple finding and taking him. I was disappointed that the author did not develop these aspects.
1 Like
Agree! The entire disappearance of Billy was vague. At one time I wondered if Emilio knew him as an artist in a nearby village.
I blame Dulcie because she left her son to be guarded by Columbine who was not reliable.
I always expected Billy to be alive because they never found his body. Without a body the authorities gave up and then he was quickly sheltered by the American family.