• The Boy in the Photo

  • By: Nicole Trope
  • Narrated by: Melle Stewart
  • Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (1,086 ratings)

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The Boy in the Photo  By  cover art

The Boy in the Photo

By: Nicole Trope
Narrated by: Melle Stewart
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Publisher's summary

She becomes aware of the silence at the other end of the line. A prickling sensation crawls up her arms. Her heart speeds up. "Found who?" she asks, slowly, carefully, deliberately.

"They found Daniel."

Six years ago

Megan waits at the school gates for her six-year-old son, Daniel. As the playground empties, panic bubbles inside her. Daniel is nowhere to be found.

According to his teacher, Daniel’s father picked up his son. Except he and Megan are no longer together. After years of being controlled by her cruel husband, Megan finally found the courage to divorce him. Hands trembling, she dials his number, but the line is dead.

Six years later

Megan is feeding her new baby daughter when she gets the call she has dreamt about for years. Daniel has walked into a police station in a remote town just a few miles away.

Megan is overjoyed - her son is finally coming home. She has kept Daniel’s room, with his Cookie Monster poster on the wall and a stack of Legos under the bed, perfect to welcome him back. But when he returns, Daniel is quieter than she remembers....

Desperate to find out what happened to her little boy and to help him heal, Megan tries everything - his favourite chocolate milkshake, a reunion with his best friend, a present for every birthday missed - but still, Daniel is distant.

And as they struggle to connect, Megan begins to suspect that her son is hiding a secret. A secret that could destroy her family....

A heartbreaking, emotional, and poignant drama about a family in turmoil. Fans of Jodi Picoult, Liane Moriarty, and Linda Green - this is for you.

©2019 Nicole Trope (P)2019 Bookouture

What listeners say about The Boy in the Photo

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Finally, a really great book that kept my interest

I listen to a about 3 audiobooks a week. I have had such a hard time recently finding a book where both the story and the narrator were enjoyable and interesting.
I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this book. The character development was great, you really cared about the people in the story, and the narrator was perfect. A book I highly recommend.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

11 hours of anxious inner monologue

I spent the whole book waiting for something to happen. When it finally did, the book ended two seconds later. This is one of those books where the author gets so caught up in building to the (super obvious) twist that she forgets to develop the characters and tell a compelling story along the way. As a result, when the twist finally came, I truly didn't care what happened to any of these people and was just ready to be done. The book had potiental but ultimately it just fell flat.


We spend the majority of our time inside Megan's head. She thinks about how much she's missed her son and how much he's changed, goes back and forth about whether she's allowed to be disappointed that he's different, wonders endlessly what he's been through and why he does this or that, on and on and on. It's actually comical at times how much of this book is simply Megan getting caught up in her own thoughts. She'll start inner-monologuing in the middle of a conversation and keep at it so long you actually forget there's another character in the room still waiting for an answer to their question.


The character of the son was interesting and I found his reaction to trauma pretty realistic, but the author didn't really do much to explore what was going on with him. His relationship with Megan, which was meant to be the foundation of the story, wasn't explored much either outside of Megan's head. They have very few actual conversations and they mostly end with him lashing out and Megan immediately shrinking away to wallow in more self-pity. She goes back and forth between the extremes of finding him sweet and innocent and wanting to comfort him, and wondering if he's now an irredeemable monster who is up to no good. She never seems to consider that maybe there's a grey area here (the author doesn't seem to like those) and overall she just seems too caught up in her own head to be much help to him.


The narration, however, was very good. Even if I didn't care for Megan, the performance did a good job making her feel "real" and I did connect with her more as a result. I would not have finished this one in paperback form, that's for sure.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Slowwww, trite, tripe

Narrator is so melodramatic that it makes my skin crawl. Snails proceed faster than this story, which is just a soap opera reduced to written form.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Predictable and frustrating

predictable "twist" that I personally guessed from the begining (and see from reviews that many others did as well), along with constant grating inner monologue and idiotic choices from the main character.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

Didn’t want the book to end. Didn’t expect the twist and held my breath the final 10 minuets

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

An interesting end to what you think you already know

Throughout the whole book Megan is on an emotional roller coaster and you will find yourself rooting for her despite all the odds. I’d say that you begin to figure it all out towards the middle of the book but one of the last twists left me yelling “no!” out loud! This is a book I could see myself going back and listening to it again!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Too predictable

I enjoyed the characters, but I guessed the ending almost right away. And the story drug out.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Heart wrenching Novel, Mother’s beware!

This Novel was great but it was tough to get through. If you are a mother beware. I almost stopped listening to this book a couple of times , not because it wasn’t good but because it was heart wrenching. The twist in the ending was awesome and made it all worth it. Grab your tissue box though, u will need it.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Deep characters - and a great twist!

The characters developed quickly enough to pull you in, but there was enough information kept from you to keep you guessing throughout the story. I wasn't expecting the twist at the end! It's a pretty easy listen but there is plenty of emotion that it will evoke. There were a few moments of fustration during some parts - I wasn't sure exactly how it would all come together. But hang in there and you won't be dissapointed!

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

great book!

i couldn't stop listening. great plot twist. can't wait to listen to another book by this author

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3 people found this helpful