Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite

The Cuckoo House by Daniel A. Riddle is a psychological thriller that explores what can happen to young women when they are lured away from their homelands and then trafficked into forced prostitution. When Stuart Henderson went out to purchase some Earl Grey tea, he had no idea what was in store for him. When Van, a trafficked Vietnamese girl, jumped into his car, his and his husband Martin’s lives would be forever changed. Van was now safe with them, but she was determined to find her sister Mai, who had fallen out of the boat that was smuggling them across the English Channel. Van’s surveillance of a house in Shoreditch, where she believed Mai was being held, would open up a whole world of hurt and danger for Stuart, Martin, his mother, and their friend John. Their entrance into the murky criminal underbelly would be a shock to their usually boring, suburban lives.

The Cuckoo House is an endearing and enlightening tale of love, family, and wholesome values, set against a background of violence, prostitution, and drugs that few of us could imagine, let alone experience. Daniel A. Riddle explores what happens to women who find themselves adrift in a world they don’t understand and in which they are required to perform unspeakable acts just to survive. The story is split between two time periods, as we follow the five intrepid friends searching for Mai in the present day, alongside the story of Mai’s survival (six months earlier) from the English Channel. What I really enjoyed was how the author explores what goes on inside the minds of trafficked persons and how it affects their view of life and other people. With the relationship between John and Van, I was fascinated by how both parties viewed it so entirely differently. For such a dark storyline, the narrative is at times genuinely funny, with Mrs. Patterson often providing the perfect foil for the other participants’ foibles. This novel will have readers thinking about how they would react in similar circumstances, and that gives it an air of believability and relatability. I enjoyed this read immensely and highly recommend it.