Review: The Child by Fiona Barton

Title: The Child
Author: Fiona Barton
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Berkley Books
Publish Date: June 27, 2017
Source: Publisher

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "As an old house is demolished in a gentrifying section of London, a workman discovers a tiny skeleton, buried for years. For journalist Kate Waters, it s a story that deserves attention. She cobbles together a piece for her newspaper, but at a loss for answers, she can only pose a question: Who is the Building Site Baby?

As Kate investigates, she unearths connections to a crime that rocked the city decades earlier: A newborn baby was stolen from the maternity ward in a local hospital and was never found. Her heartbroken parents were left devastated by the loss.

But there is more to the story, and Kate is drawn house by house into the pasts of the people who once lived in this neighborhood that has given up its greatest mystery. And she soon finds herself the keeper of unexpected secrets that erupt in the lives of three women and torn between what she can and cannot tell."

My Two Cents:

"The Child" is the story of three women. There is Angela, a woman that had her baby stolen from the hospital many years ago. She still dreams that her child may be alive but realizes that may be too good to be true. There is Emma, a young woman trying to come to terms with her majorly messed up childhood as an adult. Then there is Kate, an intrepid reporter, who wants to find out the mystery behind the baby buried in the garden that captivates the whole country. This book had tons of twists and turns and definitely kept me guessing.

Thrillers are still one genre that I don't seem to get around to all that much but during the summer, sometimes you just want a book that is going to take you on a wild ride and this book certainly does that. It's not too fast paced but the twists and turns make this book thrilling. There were a few points in the book where I really thought I had everything figured out only to have Barton turn everything on its head again and again. I really liked how she was able to do this! She definitely knows how to build up excitement.

Another thing that I liked is that she actually puts a lot into making sure her characters aren't flat (a flaw that often seems to be hiding in more action oriented books). I especially enjoyed reading about Emma and Jude, her mother. Jude is a terribly flawed, sort of horrible character that doesn't seem to get that the world does not revolve around her. Although she wants a relationship with Emma, she seems to want to make sure it is a contentious, strained relationship at every turn. Emma seems to have some deep-rooted issues that are slowly unraveled throughout the book.

Overall, this is a good read that will keep you on your toes!