This was not for me. Barton's writing style is far too tame for my tastes, making it a dry read that tilts towards melodramatic.

RATING: 3.5 STARS
(I received an ARC from the NETGALLEY)
(Review Not on Blog)

After an old house is demolished, the workers find a skeleton of a baby. Kate Waters, a journalist, writes a piece for her paper about the "building baby". She soon starts to investigate and finds a case of where a baby disappeared decades ago. Could these two cases be connected?

This novel was a bit predictable, but well-written and it still had a bit of suspense. It is worth reading this novel if you enjoy mysteries. I have not yet read her first novel, The Widow, but am excited to read it (whenever I get to it).

If possible, I might have enjoyed this one more than The Widow - loved the continuing character in the journalist, and I felt that the storyline was better paced. Will definitely recommend.

I was given this ARC by NetGalley in return for an honest review. To add a quick note about the publisher; I requested this book while it was available only for certain markets, I was denied the request, but the publisher was nice enough to inform me that if I requested it again, it would be available for me to read. I truly appreciate their consideration.
I cannot lie, this book had me twitching with some anxiety after finishing it. Secrets were uncovered and truths revealed and it wasn’t pretty, but I enjoyed every moment I spent reading this mystery/thriller.
This story doesn’t really have one main character, but multiple characters with lives that somehow intertwine, influence and impact one another that require the reader to fully pay attention and thus be more completely immersed in the story. All characters are well developed and fully fleshed out to provide a remarkable reading experience.
The plot is straight forward with lots of little twists and turns and intriguing details that will keep the reader interested.
The writing was impeccable. It takes the reader by the hand and guides them through the story as it unfolds in the reader’s mind’s eye; crisp and clear.
Overall, this isn’t a story for the faint of heart. <i>The Child</i> is a thriller/mystery story that makes its genre proud and would have every reader looking the author’s other works. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to read a story of great depth and substance.

3.5 Stars

I like Fiona Barton's style of writing. Her chapters are short and easy to follow. The story is about an old house in London that is being demolished. Workers find the corpse of a baby buried in the garden. Hence the beginning of the mystery. Who is the baby? Why was it buried in the old house grounds?

This is a slow moving tale but very well developed with a few twists that are leisurely unravelled. I enjoyed all the characters and their connections to the story.

I'd loved "The Widow" from Fiona Barton and expected this book to be a sequel, which is not.

I really enjoyed "The Child", which is a very enjoyable mystery book starting with the discovery of a baby skeleton at a construction site.

A great thriller!

I have to admit: at first, I wasn't sure about this one. It seemed to get off to a bit of a slow start, but I'm glad that I decided to stick with it because it turned out to be an excellent read. 

Despite the fact that I did not get my wish (that the character of "Jude" would meet an untimely, gruesome, excruciating, painfully-slow death because she's just that much of a completely horrible not-quite-human-being), I found The Child to be compelling, with complex characters, and a well-developed, intricately-woven narrative that culminated in a perfectly-packaged jaw-dropping plot twist that I absolutely did NOT see coming!

I will definitely be recommending this one to my fellow book nerds!

Don't ask me why I seem to be starting my summer reads with all these suspense thrillers, but I am emerging from the book fog that had descended on me in the last two weeks. The Child is the follow up to Fiona Barton's The Widow and I quickly found myself immersed in its pages. I LOVED this one much more than its predecessor. But I had to take away a star because I figured the ending out at 60%. Definitely picking up another Fiona Barton in the future though.

The Child by Fiona Barton is a brand new novel of twisting psychological suspense from the author of the New York Times bestseller The Widow. While I enjoyed he Widow, I liked this one much better, as I found the characters more fully developed in The Child. Many twists and turns with a surprise ending.

“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? “

This novel is told from four women's perspectives Emma, Angela, Kate, and Jude, past and present.

EMMA has secrets and works from home as a book editor. She is married to Paul a teacher at the University. Emma suffers from anxiety and is on medication.

ANGELA’s newborn baby, Alice was kidnapped from the maternity ward 28 years ago and was never found. Angela never recovered from the trauma. She had been a nurse and was now married to Nick, a stay-at-home mom with son, Patrick and daughter, Louise.

KATE is a reporter for the Daily Post married to Steve, a doctor with two adult sons Jake and Freddie. Kate is fascinated with this story, and decides to try and uncover the story behind the remains. This was “a needle-in-a-haystack job.” This was something she could sink her teeth into and get her out of the office.

JUDE is Emma’s distant mother who is obsessed with her boyfriend, Will. Jude along with Will threw Emma out of their house when she was just 16 years old. Only Will was important to her…not her daughter. Emma has tried to share her secret, but Jude would not listen.

But all these women take notice of the newspaper article of the building site baby.

Each short chapter is devoted to one of the above characters, to allow the reader to get to know all four characters in greater depth. They all play a part in the overall picture. The different stories all come together.

“As Kate investigates, she 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.”

This is a fast-paced mystery that is sure to please. I did not expect the most surprising twist at the end of the book…OMG I didn’t see it coming. I was probably too immersed in the story line.

I would like to thank First to Read for my copy to review as well as the author, Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for an advance copy of this book. I was fortunate to win both copies on the same day.

I enjoyed Barton's first book more than The Child, though I think it will have a lot of appeal with fans of her first book. I'm not sure why but I just found it a little too obvious. I guessed about 3 chapters in the entire ending, and didn't find anything surprising. Maybe I am just 'genre'd out' and need a break from grip lit.

Everyone's got a story to tell.

When a baby's skeleton is found on a building site, reporter Kate Waters becomes fascinated by the case and decides to delve deeper in the hopes of landing a big story for her newspaper. Her investigation leads her to two women – Emma Simmonds and Angela Irving.

Decades earlier and shortly after giving birth, Angela's baby Alice disappeared from the maternity hospital. Although Angela still has hope, no trace of her child was ever found. When the bones are unearthed at the building site, she is convinced they are those of her lost daughter's.

As a child, Emma and her mother Jude, lived in the house where the dead baby is found. Emma, now an adult and living with her supportive husband, is a book editor who suffers from severe anxiety. She also has many secrets. Over the years she has had a difficult and strained relationship with her mother.

At the heart of it all is an intriguing mystery in a slowly developing and engrossing story. Who is the mother of the baby and how did it die? Who buried it? As the women's lives intersect, more is revealed about them while the pace quickens.

The Child is well-written with a strong plot, detailed settings, complex characters and unexpected surprises. With it's intriguing premise and low-key suspense which builds to a crescendo, it is definitely a novel I recommend.

Construction workers find the a newborn's bones while they are digging up a backyard. The remains are 30 to 40 years old. There are only bones left, so it's hard to figure out what happened. Emma has mental health problems and she gets very nervous when she hears about the discovery that happened in the backyard of her childhood home. Angela gets hopeful when she hears about it because she wonders if it is her long lost baby that was abducted from her hospital room 40 years ago. Kate is a reporter who is intrigued by this story and throws all her energy into discovering the identity of the mysterious baby.
This book was a thrilling ride from beginning to end! There were multiple characters who were under suspicion for having something to do with the baby. Angela thinks it's her missing baby. But at the same time Emma acts very guilty for some reason.

At first, I wondered why Emma's narration was in first person, while Kate's and Angela's chapters had a third person narrator. However, by the end of the story it's clear why this technique was used. It increased Emma's unstable appearance to the reader.

Though I figured out what the solution was before the end, this was a really good story. I was hooked from the beginning and couldn't put it down. Now I need to read Fiona Barton's previous novel, The Widow.

The Child by Fiona Barton was everything I love about thrillers. It was a fast-paced, interesting and twisty read and I couldn’t get enough of these characters and this story.

Told from the different points of views of the characters, we are introduced to a couple who lost their baby, a girl who holds a terrible secret and the reporter who is determined to uncover it all. I loved each character; they were all dealing with difficult situations and were also not entirely trustworthy, keeping you continuously questioning the truth about their individual situations. I really grew to feel personally connected to them as well, as I learned their story. It’s not surprise that Kate, the reporter, got so involved in this case. It was alluring and these women were so genuine and so lost, you wanted nothing more than to help them.

Barton sprinkled enough real life into each story as well, there were some affairs, there were mental illnesses, all these other aspects that added layers to this story without fully complicating the situation or making it too confusing. It was a great balance between too much happening and it being too transparent.

I was kept on edge until the very end, not ever entirely sure what was going to happen or how Barton would be able to explain away the tale she was telling. When the ending finally exposed itself, I was happily satisfied. It seemed like such a simple explanation, yet there was so much throughout that kept me from totally discovering everything before the book revealed it. I loved this read and definitely want to read more of what Barton has to offer. She knows how to spin a tight web that will never, fully, let you go.

I was introduced to Fiona Barton through her debut novel, The Widow, which came out last year. While I enjoyed the story, I didn’t love it. I’m happy to say that her second novel is far more engrossing and interesting than her previous one.

In The Child, the reporter, Kate Waters, from The Widow is back, but the stories aren’t connected at all. There’s no need to read the books in order. I was really intrigued by this premise and I really enjoyed how this book takes place through the different viewpoints of four women. It’s really easy to keep track of the four characters since they have such different mannerisms.

This is a really fast-paced mystery, but I figured out what was going on long before Kate did. That usually never happens for me, but it didn’t decrease my enjoyment of this book at all. I was still really curious to know why and how it happened.

While the characters were all well-written, I didn’t like them all of the time. Just like in the previous book, I was bothered by Kate’s single mindedness about getting the story without considering who she was hurting. I hated Jude from the beginning and I never changed my mind. I pitied Angela, and was bothered by Emma’s weakness. I liked how the characters transformed by the end, but they never felt extremely well-developed. This may be that due to the narrative shifting between them all, we never got to know them very well.

Overall, this was still a highly enjoyable mystery and I know that if people liked The Widow, they will continue to support Fiona Barton by reading her second novel since it brings the same kind of story. It may not be as unique or nuanced as her first book, but overall, I found the reading experience to be better due to it being more fast-paced. I will continue reading all of Fiona Barton’s novels.

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This has affected my review in no way.

The novel focuses on the reactions of four women to the discovery of a long-buried infant’s skeleton on a building site. Kate Waters, a reporter, decides to investigate this case in the belief that there is a human interest story to be written. Emma Simmonds, who once lived in the area where the body was found, becomes panicked when she reads about the finding of human remains. Jude Massingham, Emma’s narcissistic mother who forced her daughter to leave home at 16, also becomes anxious at the news. Angela Irving, whose newborn daughter Alice was kidnapped from the hospital, is convinced the bones belong to Alice. As Kate delves, more and more secrets are uncovered and the lives of the four women become entwined.

The book is an easy, quick read. The division into short chapters (alternating with the viewpoints of the various women) quickens the pace. The reader does not have to do a great deal of thinking to guess what is supposed to be the big plot twist at the end. To the author’s credit, there are a great number of clues to steer the reader in the right direction. I found, therefore, that there really wasn’t a great deal of suspense; I read just to find out if I had correctly guessed the ending. Readers will probably find the conclusion emotionally satisfying, but I found it rather melodramatic.

The book examines how tragedies in the past affect the emotional lives of people in the present. Obviously, the loss of Alice has devastated Angela and affected her relationships with her husband and other children. When tragedies are kept secret, there are also consequences. Emma, for example, has a secret she has shared with no one, not even her husband, and her relationships with him and her mother are affected.

I did not always find Kate a believable character. For instance, people’s willingness to speak to Kate, I found problematic. People are usually reticent to speak to journalists but she manages to get everyone to talk to her. Even the police co-operate with her. Sometimes she just seems too much like a know-it-all. At one point, a detective asks Kate, “’Any news on forensics?’” and she replies, “’Nothing yet. What we need is to get the Met to look at Angela’s DNA. I was going to call the detective in the building-site-baby case to suggest it . . . ‘” She has to tell the police how to do their job? When Angela awaits DNA test results, she asks Kate, “’You will ring as soon as you hear, won’t you? Promise me.’” A reporter would know such test results before the person whose sample was taken?

Like Burton’s first novel, The Widow, this one makes for a good summer read. It is undemanding and sufficiently interesting to while away a few leisurely hours.

Note: I received and eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley.

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.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

A solid 3.5 star read.

I read Fiona Barton's The Widow last summer and thought it was fine - not as shocking or gripping as I Let You Go, but an interesting take on the very popular psychological thriller that is so very popular at the moment.

I requested an advanced copy of "The Child" because I did enjoy Barton's writing style and wanted to give her a second shot.

This is a pretty addictive read. Once you start reading, you get sucked right in. This story focuses around the discovery of a tiny skeleton, buried in the backyard of a home in London. Told through alternating perspectives, we follow Kate (previously introduced to us in The Widow, a reporter at the Daily Post), Emma, and Angela as they try to sort who the skeleton belongs too.

Unlike most thrillers, this one is led by a reporter, rather than by police detectives, as she tries to uncover whom the skeleton belongs to and if it has ties to Alice, a newborn who was taken from the hospital within hours of her birth. Solving a 40 year old case would pull at heartstrings while also return Kate to the good graces of her editor. Win-win right? Only things aren't that simple, and as Kate unravels more of the mystery and digs deeper into the story nothing is quite what it seems.

If you've read this - you might agree with me that you saw the "twist" long before it was revealed. Did it spoil the story? Not at all. This was still a fast-paced, well developed story. I think Barton has done an excellent job of establishing Kate Waters as a believable investigative reporter, with many more stories to come.

Recommended summer read.

The Child is a standalone suspense/mystery/thriller.

There are four women who narrate this story: Emma (1st person), Kate (3rd person), Angela (3rd person) and Jude (3rd person).

The book is very British and takes place in 2012.

Emma is in her early 40s. She is married to Paul. She works from home as an editor. Kate is a reporter for the Daily Post. She is around 50. She is married to Steve. Angela is in her 60s. She is married to Nick. Jude is in her 70s. She is Emma's mom.

When an old house is demolished the remains of a newborn baby are found. Kate tries to figure out whose baby it is and how the baby got there.

When the book starts we have Emma, Kate and Angela telling us their stories. I knew that these stories would somehow intertwine. And it becomes apparent quite soon that everything centers around that baby.

There are lots of secrets to be discovered. And that was a very good aspect of the story.

I think that my favorite narrator was Kate. I really liked reading about her and her side-kick Joe. I liked seeing how they would uncover facts and use it in their newspaper stories.

The book started off a bit slow for me. It was good, but not great. But as the book progressed I got more involved with the story and the characters.

There were definitely some interesting twists and turns that I did not see coming.

To me the ending is everything. And the last part of the book was the strongest. I really enjoyed how everything played out. And it left me very satisfied.

Overall, the beginning of the book was interesting. But the last part of the book was the most impressive to me. The end and how everything tied together was very strong. Very enjoyable suspense/thriller!

I cannot begin to describe how much I loved this book! Just like in The Widow, the novel features a journalist who is amazing at investigating and putting together the clues; in fact, she does a better job than the police! I love how kickass Kate is; for once, the woman solves things and doesn't just get pushed to the side. Kate doesn't make stupid mistakes. She is perfectly capable of handling the situation and doing a competent job. This is one of the many things I love about the novel. Having a journalist as the main character was really awesome to see and gave me a really cool insight into the world of investigative journalism. This book was all about motherhood and the ways in which we see mothers in the world. This book also deals with sexual violence and can be quite graphic, so consider this your trigger warning. My main attraction to this novel was its focus on multiple women and the way they handled traumatic situations in their lives. I honestly did not see the ending coming until most of the clues were given to me, and the thrill factor was definitely ramped up with this story! My one teeny complaint would be that I wished that when they talked about the court proceedings, the author had gotten into more detail; it felt a bit rushed after this amazing drawn-out story. Overall, another amazing thriller from Fiona Barton that you definitely do not want to miss out!

The Child exceeded my expectations. It was even better than Fiona Barton’s debut novel The Widow. This book moved at a fast pace with good character development. I love a surprising ending and The Child’s ending blew me away – completely unexpected.

If you’ve read The Widow, you’ll get to build on journalist Kate Waters story as well are her relationship with various characters including the Detective. The Child also has some flashbacks to The Widow, so I would recommend reading them in order (though not necessary).

I would highly recommend this book! It is a page turner that you’ll be unable to put down. You will not be disappointed.