Title: The ChildAuthor: Fiona Barton
Published by: Penguin Books Canada on Jun. 27, 2017
Genres: Mystery/Thriller
Pages: 384
Format: eBook, ARC
Source: Penguin Random House Canada, NetGalley
Book Rating: 8/10
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…
Review:
Intriguing, disturbing, and gritty!
This is a character-driven psychological thriller that reminds us that secrets from the past often find their way to the surface no matter how well they are hidden or buried.
It is, ultimately, a story about abuse, neglect, manipulation, sexual deviance, deception, heartbreak, lies and familial dynamics.
The writing is suspenseful and twisty. The characters are multi-layered, flawed and vulnerable. And the plot, although a little slow in the first half of the novel is much more intense, emotional, mysterious and unpredictable in the second half of the novel and has an exceptional ending that is sure to not only satisfy but completely take you by surprise.
This is definitely a good sophomore novel for Barton with a lot of heartfelt drama, character development and multiple subplots that will keep you completely entertained, invested and engaged until the very end.
This book is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Fiona Barton
Fiona Barton's career has taken some surprising twists and turns over the years. She has been a journalist - senior writer at the Daily Mail, news editor at the Daily Telegraph, and chief reporter at The Mail on Sunday, where she won Reporter of the Year at the National Press Awards, gave up her job to volunteer in Sri Lanka and since 2008, has trained and worked with exiled and threatened journalists all over the world.
But through it all, a story was cooking in her head.
She lives with husband in south-west France, where she writes in bed, early in the morning when the only distraction is her cockerel, Sparky, crowing.
