Wafer Thin

June M. Blurton is a retired speech pathologist.

Set in the countryside near Halifax, Nova Scotia, this novel concerns a
mother, her adult son Lucas, and their relationship with their
neighbors. Lucas makes friends with a small boy who moves in next door
with his mother. The child is scrawny and afraid of most people, and it
gradually dawns on Lucas that he has been abused, not by the mother, but
by the father they left. Lucas tries to find out who in authority knew
about the abuse, why nothing was done to prevent it, and whether the
mother can be dissuaded from returning to live with the father.

The main characters are out of the ordinary, and yet entirely
believable. Lucas is a champion of the underdog by nature and training.
He has a stump where there was once a hand before he tried to save a
kitten from a burning house. The one weak point of the novel is its
stilted dialogue. Nevertheless, Wafer Thin echoes in the mind long after
it has been put down.