The Secret Baby Room

' D. D. Johnston’s The Secret Baby Room is a tense and compelling psychological thriller... a wonderfully gripping read, but also a compassionate and moving story of people struggling to survive at the margins of a rapidly changing city.' - Crimeculture. You think you’re ready for children. Your husband says he’s ready for children. The only problem is your new neighborhood, where children disappear. Claire Wilson knows what she saw: on the eighth floor of a derelict tower block, a woman was bottle-feeding a baby. But why would anyone take a baby into a boarded-up tower block? In an area of Manchester plagued by unexplained tragedies, Claire’s only allies are a pagan witch, a wild-child party girl, and a husband with too many secrets. 'The Secret Baby Room’s political and cultural themes are woven into a driving narrative like dye in cloth. In this fine novel, Johnston is an examiner and a questioner, rather than a polemicist. The result is a mix of thriller, satire, and cultural examination, seamlessly contained in a thumping good story with a great denouement. Most importantly, I quite simply enjoyed The Secret Baby Room and was dismayed to reach the end. As a reader I was given a treat.' - Northern Soul