Elliott's new novel, out Oct. 21, follows a young woman who learns after a death in the family that she was taken from her birth parents as an infant
Sydney, Australia, October 29, 2026
Australian independent author Sharon Elliott has released her new novel, The Echo of Children, which came out on Oct. 21, 2026. The book is a crime mystery and family drama built around a string of child abductions in Rosehill, a suburb of Sydney, between 1999 and 2010. Five children vanished from their homes over those years. Two decades later, one of those children, now a grown woman named Jessica, finds evidence that the woman who raised her was not her mother.
The novel is available now on Amazon and other online retailers at https://books2read.com/EchoChildren in ebook, print and large print formats, with an audiobook to follow shortly.
“I kept thinking about the people a cold case leaves behind,” Elliott said. “Police files get put on a shelf. The families don’t get to do that. I wanted to write about the years in between, and about what it would mean for a missing child to come home as an adult who doesn’t remember any of it.”
A Case That Never Closed
The disappearances in the novel took place over roughly 10 years, and every one of the children was taken from one of Rosehill’s grand Victorian houses. Investigators linked the cases but could not find who was responsible, and the file went quiet.
The children were not killed. They were taken and raised elsewhere, scattered across the country under different names. None of them knew about the others, and none knew they had been reported missing.
The Adams Family
At the center of the book’s grief are Peter and June Adams. June was heavily pregnant when her two infant daughters were taken. Later, their baby son, Jack, also disappeared. In one of the novel’s hardest images, June spends years in her garden pushing a baby stroller, caring for a doll she treats as her missing son.
An early editorial review singled out these chapters, noting the depth of the parents’ heartbreak and saying many readers who are mothers will feel June’s depression closely.
“June was the character I worried about most,” Elliott said. “I didn’t want her to be a symbol of a grieving mother. I wanted her to be a real woman who doesn’t know if any of her children are alive.”
Jessica’s Search
The story’s main thread belongs to Jessica, one of the Adams daughters, who has grown up in Brisbane believing she knew who she was. When the woman she called her mother dies, Jessica uncovers the first clues that her adoption was never legal. She was not given up. She was taken.
She moves from Brisbane to the Rosehill area and takes her evidence to the local police, and her findings are enough to reopen the cold case. There she meets a detective with a hidden past of his own, and an unexpected romance begins.
“Jessica could have put the papers back in the box,” Elliott said. “A lot of people would have. I wanted to write someone who decides she has to know, even when knowing costs her the life she was comfortable with.”
Reunions
The reunions are not simple, and Elliott does not rush past the harder question of the people who raised the stolen children, and what their love was worth.
Reviewers on Goodreads have praised Elliott’s characters as likeable and described the book as both heartbreaking and heartwarming, with strong appeal for readers who enjoy found family stories.
The book was also featured in an Indie Spotlight on the Indie Lit Lounge Substack on Sept. 24, 2026, which highlighted Jessica’s search and her decision to reopen a case that will change everyone’s life.
Mystery and Family Saga
The Echo of Children sits between crime mystery and family saga. The cold case gives the book its structure and a question of who was responsible that holds until late in the story. But its main interest is the people: what grief does to a family over twenty years, and what it means to find out who you really are.
Elliott handles these difficult subjects without graphic detail.
“I didn’t want to make a child’s suffering into entertainment,” Elliott said. “The story is about what love does when it’s interrupted, and what it does when it gets a second chance.”
I kept thinking about the people a cold case leaves behind. Police files get put on a shelf. The families don’t get to do that.”
Sharon Elliott, author of The Echo of Children
About Sharon Elliott
Sharon Elliott is an Australian independent author who has been writing for about 10 years. Her earlier books include a personal biography with a fictional twist, a three-book cozy mystery series, a historical novel with paranormal elements and several Australian historical fiction novels. The Echo of Children is her first fictional cold case investigation.
“Being independent means you do everything yourself, however most of the time is spent on publishing and marketing,” Elliott said. “But it also means the book is exactly the book I wanted to write.”
Availability
The Echo of Children by Sharon Elliott was released Oct. 21, 2026, and is available now on Amazon and other online retailers. Ebooks are also available from the author’s online store.
Media Contact
Sharon Elliott
Author, The Echo of Children
Website: https://sharonelliottauthor.com
Buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0HG12TTTT
Buy at all retailers: https://books2read.com/EchoChildren
Ebook store: https://payhip.com/SHARONELLIOTTEBOOKSTORE
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Last modified: October 29, 2026
