Pirate Patty Reviews

Blending fact and fiction, the author introduces us to the Nanny. The nanny of the most famous kidnapped child in America at the time Charles Lindbergh was shining bright and everyone wanted to see the famous baby.

Ready to move house and have some privacy, the Lindberghs hire Betty Gow. Betty is still trying to get used to America. Hailing from Scotland, she is determined to do well and succeed in this strange country. She is a bit naive and that will get her into a lot of trouble.

Betty finds the Lindbergh household odd, to say the least. Some of the rules Mr. Lindbergh had were bordering on cruelty. As well as his views on Hitler. They are not what she expected at all. Dodging photographers hiding in the bushes trying to get a picture of the baby. People are really nuts about this.

And when the baby disappears it’s the nanny who becomes infamous. Blamed and shunned, she returns to her home in Scotland until the day a man is charged and she must testify in court.

There really was a Betty Gow and a lot of this comes from her as well as impeccable research! I have always thought that the Lindberghs were sympathetic people. I don’t think that now. He was rather an ogre and bigot. She was jumpy and afraid of him. I don’t think either of them actually wanted a baby.

I loved this book. A different look at the story we’ve all been led to believe.

NetGalley/November 15, 2022, St. Martin’s Press