Just when I think I should start calling myself a plot driven reader versus a character driven reader, I read a story like this where I find that the part that doesn't click for me is the characters and not the story. I found the story in this book very engaging and clever- while I had an idea what the main plot twist was, I definitely hadn't pieced together exactly how it would happen and how all the pieces of this book would fall together. However, I felt that I didn't get to know the characters terribly well, which made it hard to connect with them, even as I wanted to spend more time with them to understand Emma's distress and Angela's despair. I think the short chapters and quickly alternating viewpoints were part of the issue, just as I was getting ready to learn more about a character, I had to switch, and it would take me a bit to connect back with the other character.

I was a bit hesitant going into this book as I really had not cared for the author's last book, but I knew that it was possibly the fact that I was sensitive to the material in the last book and maybe had disliked it due more to personal reasons than anything being truly at issue with the writing in the book. Fortunately for this reader, The Child provided a much better reading experience. Ultimately, though, I think this might be a case where this author's writing is just not for me.

Fiona Barton’s prior book The Widow was a mystery told from the point of view of three characters, including crack reporter Kate Waters. I enjoyed it, and was pleased to receive an advance copy of Ms. Barton’s latest, The Child, from Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Similar in structure to The Widow,, The Child is told from the points of view of three main characters, this time all women:

Kate Waters is back as the intrepid journalist, looking for her next big story as she watches the newspaper business changing around her. “The tsunami of online news had washed her and those like her to a distant shore.”
Emma Simmonds is a young editor whose extreme anxiety about whether he past might catch up to her seems to be threatening the stability she has found in the married life she has created for herself. “He doesn’t know me really. I’ve made sure.”
Angela Irving has a mother’s intuition and her identity as a mother is shaded by the devastating loss she suffered 20+ years ago when her infant was stolen from the hospital right after its birth. “People say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…it doesn’t. It breaks your bones, leaving everything splintered and held together with grubby bandages and yellowing sticky tape...Fragile and exhausting to hold together. Sometimes you wish it had killed you.”
The plot centers around the grisly discovery of the skeleton of an infant, unearthed at a construction site. Each of the primary characters has a connection to the unfolding story of the “Building Site Baby,” and this propels the narrative.

The structure of the novel works well and the characters are well drawn. We learn so much about them as their individual searches for the meaning of this event occur. Emma, for example, has a husband who works at a University. Her view of his work environment? “University departments are like prides of lions, really. Lots of males preening and screwing around and hanging on to their superiority by their dewclaws.” (Having worked at a college, I LOVED this line!). Barton’s excellent descriptive skills are clear as Emma reminisces about a house where she lived as a child: “I can still smell that house; years of patchouli oil overlaid by grime, suffocating and musky like a hippie’s old afghan coat.”

 I’m one of those people who NEVER solves the mystery in advance, but even I could see this one coming, so it lost a star there. But that didn’t detract from the enjoyment I experienced as I read this book. I look forward to more from Ms. Barton. Four stars.

This was the first book of Fiona Barton that I have read and I really enjoyed it. I liked how the author drew your attention one way, only to have it twist! I did figure it out about 3/4 of the way through, but it still held my attention and I liked the way she wrapped everything up. Now I'm going to go back and read her other book The Widow and look forward to more!

A stellar second novel by Fiona Barton. Read it straight through!

4.5/5 stars.
I completely adored Fiona Barton’s debut novel The Widow and was eagerly awaiting her second novel The Child. I enjoyed The Child just as much, it not slightly more than The Widow. This novel is a must read, for readers that have a fondness for a great mystery, with plot twist you will never see coming, and filled with an extraordinary cast of characters. LOVED IT!!

*Thank you to the author, publisher, and netgalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.*

When the skeleton of a newborn is found on a construction site, three women are drawn to the story - a reporter, a mother who once lost a baby, and a young wife with a secret. The Child alternates primarily between these three perspectives, as the reporter works to uncover the truth about the "Building Site Baby." It is an engaging mystery, but if one is expecting a thriller this book does not really deliver. However, the characters are interesting and I never got bogged down while reading. It is a good beach read!

An unsolved mystery resurfaced when a baby's skeleton was found at a building site.

Along with the skeleton, three main characters emerge too. Kate is a reporter investigating the story. Emma is a nervous adult who became intrigued as well as possessed when she sees the story of the baby. Angela is the mother whose baby disappeared more than 40 years ago never to be found.

THE CHILD took a while to get interesting simply because it was a bit slow, and there were too many characters thrown in. I was lost with so many different characters and couldn't seem to figure out the connection until around half way through the book so don’t give up because it is worth the wait.

As the pages turned and I reached the halfway point, the book started making a connection for me and kept my attention. The mystery became intriguing.

The characters seemed genuine for their roles, but something was odd and different about each of them.

This was my first book by Ms. Barton so I imagine I needed to get used to her writing style and her attention to detail.

There are some good twists to the story as well as some disturbing subjects that are addressed.

All in all, THE CHILD is a good read that will keep you guessing. 4/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher and NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This compelling story had me hooked until the very last page, and includes a twist I didn't see coming! Highly recommend.

First there was the shock and horror of finding the tiny skeleton of a newborn baby when excavation to rebuild a weathered community was underway. Then there was the unimaginable horror and heartache of two women believing the child was theirs. If not for investigative reporter Kate Waters, the dark and twisted truth would never be revealed. Will it take the Wisdom of Solomon to discern the true mother or will forensic science and a search on the internet reveal something far more sinister? Something with the tentacles of an octopus and the talons of a hawk?

Follow the distinct POVs of three women, decades after this tiny angel was hidden in a cold and lonely grave and discover more darkness and deceit than seems possible. The webs that are woven are brutal, coarse and unfathomable to a normal mind, yet for all the flack the press receives, the true identity of this child would have been buried all over again if not for Kate.

THE CHILD by Fiona Barton is filled with grit, pain and unimaginable actions…but can the puzzle be solved without further damaging those involved? Follow the clues, sift through the stories and hope that, if there is justice, it will be served for all as nightmares of the past bleed into the secrets of the present. Sometimes a little too over the top, but then again, life can be that way,too.

I received an ARC edition from Berkley in exchange form my honest review.

Publisher: Berkley (June 27, 2017)
Publication Date: June 27, 2017
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Print Length: 384 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews & More: http://tometender.blogspot.com

She left her hospital room for a few minutes to take a shower. Her baby was sleeping peacefully and she wouldn't be gone long. But when she came back, the baby was gone!

Berkley and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published June 27th.

When the reporter was looking for general interest stories, she ran across a small article about baby bones being found at demolition site. That sounded intriguing and she began digging into it. What she discovers will change her life.

The body is found in an area that has been deteriorating over the years. It has been acquired for new development but finding a body slows it down a bit.

Kate is a bulldog about her stories. She has contacts all over and utilizes them to find out how many babies were reported missing forty years ago or so. She finds three and decides the most recent might be her baby. She finds the mother with more inquiry and goes to visit her. Soon she's convinced the baby must be Alice but why would someone murder a baby?

The story gets more complicated. With a woman obsessed with a man, sexual predators and drugs, a grieving family and another mother grieving a dead baby there's lots going on. As the story plays out, you begin to realize no one is innocent.

The final twist at the end is what makes the story unforgettable. The story twists and ties around itself but at the end there are no secrets. Now everybody has to pick up the pieces and move on.

This is not a book for everyone. It was an emotionally rough read but executed very well. The perspective of reporter, Mother and Emma really complete the picture from a variety of angles and provide unique accounts.

I really thought I would enjoy this one, but that didn't happen. I continued reading, but with no genuine concern for the characters or outcome.

I liked The Widow so I really thought that this would be good pick for me. Honestly, it was so incredibly boring and stale. I couldn't even finish it. I was bored by chapter 7.

I really enjoyed the Widow by Fiona Barton, so I was looking forward to her next mystery. And I have no complaints. If not quite as good, it was still a very enjoyable mystery that I can heartily recommend.

This is a fast paced mystery told from the perspective of four different women. Short punchy chapters keep this book moving right along. At first I was worried about keeping the women straight, but no problems there. Kate is a reporter who zeros in on the story of a baby’s skeleton found at the site of old housing units being demolished. I have to say I wasn't a fan of Jude, who struck me as a total narcissist. Emma, her daughter, has her issues, too. And I just felt sorry for Angela, whose baby daughter went missing from the maternity ward a day after her birth.

At the beginning, I had to question Kate being allowed to follow an unproven story line and devote so much time to it in a time of layoffs, but that’s a minor quibble. What makes the novel work well is how the different stories all come together. The relationship between Emma and Jude was the real clincher to keeping my interest.

I figured out what was happening well before Kate did. But that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm for the end of the book.

My thanks to netgalley and Berkley Publishing for an advance copy of this book.

Kate Waters is a news reporter hot on the trail of a story that she hopes will be a big one. A baby’s skeleton has been found in a construction site. Kate can’t get the baby out of her mind. What tragedy was behind the burial of this infant child? Could this baby be the one who was stolen from a maternity ward decades ago? As she digs deeper, secrets come to the surface that will change the lives of three women forever.

The reporter Kate also appears in Ms. Barton’s first book, “The Widow”. The chapters in her new book alternate between three women. First of all is, of course, Kate Waters, the reporter. She’s relentless in the pursuit of truth. Angela is the mother of little Alice who she alleges was stolen from a maternity ward shortly after her birth. Although Angela has two other children, she has never gotten over the loss of her child and longs for closure. And Emma, a woman who seems obsessed with this baby.

The beginning of the book starts off slowly as the author builds her story. It was slow enough that I was considering giving the book 3 stars but the second half of the book pushed my rating up to 4 stars because that’s when I truly became involved in the story. The twist didn’t come as too much of a surprise but it didn’t matter as the main thrust of this book isn’t the “who done it” or even the why but the effect on the characters. I loved how much Kate cared for the people she connected with. I think we have such a callous opinion of reporters, only out for the story no matter what it costs others, so it was refreshing to read of one with a heart. This isn’t so much of a thriller as an in depth character study of three women. We know from the beginning that the baby has died so there’s no suspense there. But the author does a very good job of giving us a look into the hearts and minds of women whose lives were so monumentally affected by one act.

Recommended.

We all know the saying “Oh, what a tangled web we weave… when first we practice to deceive.” In Fiona Barton’s engrossing new thriller, The Child, that tangled web is spun around a single act. Like a stack of dominoes falling when just one is pushed over, it seems almost inevitable that when one string on that web is pulled, the whole construct is torn apart until a shocking secret is completely revealed.

Like most buried secrets, its discovery was always a question of when, not if. As a building is demolished, a workman stumbles across the skeleton of an infant covered by a large cement urn and left undisturbed for years. When London reporter Kate Waters sees the simple two-sentence write up about it in the Evening Standard, she is intrigued. Visiting the neighborhood and then chasing down the construction worker who first found the remains, she writes a larger article about the event, hoping to stir some memories and shed some light on the identity of the baby and why it was left to rot in such a location.

Emma Simmonds has been battling depression for decades, a result of a traumatic childhood experience which ended with her being thrown out of her home at just sixteen years of age. In the present, she has a good job, a loving husband and a cold but cordial relationship with her mother. But the past is a dark pit, a well of memories which into which she could easily fall and drown. When she sees the article about the infant dubbed the ‘Building Site Baby’, she finds herself once more heading towards that dark place.

Jude Massingham is annoyed by her daughter Emma’s melodramatic take on the past. Yes, bad things happened but Jude is all about the future. She’s just received a call from an old flame, an ex whom she never really got over and she doesn’t understand why Emma can’t share in her joy at their possible reunion. She grows increasingly frustrated as Emma’s trip down memory lane begins to throw shadows on her dreams for a lovely future.

Angela Irving has never gotten over the abduction of her infant daughter. Every new case of a missing child being discovered, every case of an unidentified infant body being found is cause for both elation and concern. It’s possible that she will finally reconnect with the child she still longs to hold but it is also possible the police will return with the nasty allegations they threw at her in the past. She desperately wants to know what happened to her precious daughter but she doesn’t want to stir up the hornet’s nest that was the previous investigation. Connecting with Kate Waters looks like a marvelous opportunity to find out all that is happening with the the Building Site Baby but can she really trust a reporter?

Four lives collide as Kate carefully follows a story that will take her to a surprising but deeply satisfying ending. I was intrigued from the first page by what was happening and how the case was unfolding. The tale is deliciously startling, with each twist and turn seemingly coming out of nowhere. Barton is a master storyteller who uses her pacing carefully, starting out slow and easing us into a fast paced conclusion that leaves the reader stunned. In fact, my only quibble with the book is that we start out at what feels like a crawl. This lasts for only a short time and didn’t bother me personally, but I know some fans require more explosive momentum from the start. Stick with it a tiny bit and I promise,you will find it well worth your while.

Each character in our little drama plays their role to perfection. Each of them are at times vulnerable, sympathetic or suspicious. Almost everything is colored in shades of gray, so that it is hard to make out who will wind up the villain of the piece and who the hero. While I enjoyed getting to know most of them, what made this book great for me was the return of Kate and Sparkes. Kate is perfect as a reporter, a combination of just right amount of social justice warrior and ruthless, career conscious woman. Sparkes is exactly how we expect a police officer of his rank and experience to be: curmudgeonly, smart, focused and caring. I like how he and Kate don’t have an easy relationship: They like each other but neither completely trusts the other, and this seems natural given their careers and their often conflicting goals. While this is the second book featuring this duo, it completely stands alone.

The Child is an onion of a mystery, with each layer a wondrous revelation. Fans of psychological thrillers featuring compelling female characters will NOT want to miss this book. Fans who enjoy a good intellectual mystery with some heart will be completely delighted with it. In fact if you like suspense at all, I strongly recommend it; this is likely to be one of the best of the year.

The Child by Fiona Barton is a deep chilling read. After reading The Widow, I found this one to be more exciting. As with the previous novel, the pacing starts out slow and then slightly builds with a fierce intensity. The plot hooked me. I was fascinated to find out who the baby was and how it got there, as well as why. Fiona Barton has a way with adding suspense to every page. The further I read, the more intrigued I was. The story was believable. Entertaining, well-written, and complicated. The main character, Kate will find out more than she planned to...overall, I enjoyed reading this latest novel. I recommend The Child to readers everywhere.