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Top reviews from Canada

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marsha l. reid

Boring read

Reviewed in Canada on July 1, 2017

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Fiona Barton is back with her follow up to The Widow which I really enjoyed but I was disappointed in this one. It is told mainly from the alternating perspectives of three women, Kate, our intrepid reporter, Angela and Emma.

The remains of a newborn baby are discovered during the demolition of a house. It is clear that the baby were buried sometime ago. Kate smells a story and needs a big one, knowing in the cut throat world of journalism she is only as good as her last story and her last big story was the Widow...

Angela on the face of it has it all, a loving husband, two grown children and grandchildren but back in1969 her first child was abducted from the hospital shortly after Angela gave birth, baby Alice, as she was named was never found. Her disappearance haunts Angela to this day. When Angela hears the news of the remains of a baby being discovered she wonders, could this finally be her baby Alice?....

Emma is a neurotic woman who works from home as a ghost editor. The discovery of the baby's remains deeply disturbs her as the remains were discovered on the street where she lived as a teenager, and brings up memories of her childhood that she would much rather forget...

Fiona Barton weaves the tales of these three women but frankly it moved at a very slow pace. I found Angela and Emma boring. And you could see where a significant part of the plot was headed and even though there is a twist in the ending which did surprise me, it was still unsatisfying.

I do like the feisty character of Kate though and hope she comes back, with a better plot.

I have been disappointed by a number of recent books of psychological suspense ...

Reviewed in Canada on August 26, 2017

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Wow!! I have been disappointed by a number of recent books of psychological suspense centred on woman characters. I felt they were over hyped and was ready to give up on the genre.
This was a compelling, gripping, fast paced tale which was difficult to put down. The characters were well developed and seemed real to me. Although emotionally damaged they evoked sympathy.
This suspenseful story involves Kate, a reporter, investigating the identity of the decades old remains of a baby found at a building site. Two woman are deeply affected by the news. Emma, a woman with a loving older husband, and her unlikable, narcissistic mother, Jude, from whom she has been estranged over the years. Angela's baby was stolen from the maternity ward in the 1970's and her enduring sorrow has caused a rift with her husband and her other children.
There are several twists in the story and a major reveal I never saw coming. This was such a well constructed plot. I feared the author had written herself into a bind with the results of the police/ scientific investigation but everything made perfect sense at the end. An emotional and addictive read.

EA

Phew. What an amazing ending

Reviewed in Canada on December 18, 2019

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This book was one of the best I've read all year. It was so well written that I was captivated by every chapter, and I didn't have a chance to make a guess at the ending. It blew me away. I cried for the entire last hour of reading this book. Absolutely brilliant.

AgnesV

Great twist at the end

Reviewed in Canada on August 29, 2019

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I never saw it coming. Excellently plotted story. The characters are believable and sympathetic. The story is complicated and skillfully entangled. Of Barton's three novels thus far, hands down the best. A "must-read" book!

lm

Disappointing read

Reviewed in Canada on August 8, 2017

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Very slow read - mostly boring, none of the characters stood out for me, as a matter of fact I began to dislike each one. Too many unimportant events and people inserted. The subject matter was good, but it lacked crispness and tension. All the women were bland, colourless, without any passion, eternally ailing, self centred - in short unlikeable. Sorry, it had the potential of a great read, but I was disappointed.

Mikey

but it became tiresome. Barton's novel "the Widow" was better than excellent

Reviewed in Canada on September 6, 2017

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The multi-person approach was well-done, but it became tiresome.
Barton's novel "the Widow" was better than excellent, so I was expecting a lot for The Child.
The outcome was obvious. The work and hours that newspaper reporters go through
to get their story was the strongest point of the novel. Have to love print media!!

Anne from Hamilton.

Really absorbing character study.

Reviewed in Canada on October 18, 2017

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Thoroughly enjoyed this outstanding British psychological novel. A long buried baby's body is found on a construction site, multiple storylines flash back and forth telling life stories of local residents, current and historical. Couldn't put it down.

Kimberlee

Read like a story behind a familiar headline.

Reviewed in Canada on April 5, 2019

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I really enjoyed getting to know the women in this this novel. Barton keeps you turning pages throughout the night in order to discover the truth behind the heartbreaking discovery of a baby long ago buried in a back garden.

Top reviews from other countries

vicar89

Awful!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2018

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I obviously missed something with this book. I bought it on the basis of the 86% 4/5 star reviews but I just don’t understand the hype. I really struggled to get to 20%, then gave up. There is nothing endearing about any of the characters, nor anything to draw you into the story. I found it badly written and the switching between characters every chapter in intensely irritating. Best avoided!

sharon

Brilliant!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 23, 2018

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I have had this book on my TBR for some time now! As a huge fan of The Widow by Fiona Barton, I really don’t know why it took me so long to get round to it!
What a haunting, chilling and emotional read. The Child is told from the POV of four women, Kate Waters, the journalist who featured in The Widow, Emma, Angela and Jude. When the remains of a child are found buried on a building site, journalist Kate immediately senses a story. Her investigation leads her to the other three women who are all in some way connected to this child.
What follows next is both suspenseful and heartbreaking as we hear each woman’s story played out through their own narrative. Secrets, lies, manipulation and abuse all unravel to tell the story of what happened to this poor child and along the way the reader is taken on a painful and tragic journey.
Without giving any spoilers away, each woman brings something different to the narrative and the voices of Emma, Jude and Angela are at times distressing, harrowing and dare I say unreliable as the reader tries to work out just who is telling the truth and what lies are they trying to keep buried.
I particularly enjoyed Kate’s character, as a journalist in her 50s she is well aware of her declining employability factor in a profession that is being eroded by the online world and celebrity obsession that seems to have taken over our news. She is astute enough to know that times are changing and that as a woman in her 50s she is going to have to play a harder game to maintain her place. It was refreshing to meet a character of a similar age to myself and for her to be strong but with a strong moral code and an empathy that many feel to be lacking in the profession. She brought a sense of authenticity and justice to the story and I am hoping that the author has many more books to come featuring Kate!
Short, sharp characters keep you on that “just one more chapter” phase which means it is hard to put the book down. Not a fast paced plot but a slow burning emotional mystery. I loved it!

the wordy bird

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 20, 2018

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Sigh. Another poor book - why are there so many out there these days? I thought the Richard and Judy recommendation would at least guarantee a degree of merit but this book was over long, with poor dialogue and whole sections of ‘I don’t know how to put these details across but the story needs them so I’ll just have a character explain things as some kind of backtracking speech’. The best thing I can say about it is that I liked it being written from the perspective of a journalist rather than a detective, but even that became laboured and unbelievable as the story went on.

GERALD

A Different Perspective

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 16, 2018

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I have read many detective novels and am fascinated by how the police go about solving crimes, using sources of information that are available only to them.
This novel is different, in that we are witnessing an investigation by a newspaper journalist,and her methodology is equally fascinating.
The story itself is strong with an unexpected twist in the tail..
All in all a very good read.

Audrey Haylins

A novel slant on the traditional crime/mystery thriller - more Kate Waters please!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 12, 2019

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When the tiny bones of a newborn are discovered buried on a building site, the lives of four women are thrown into turmoil: Angela, the still-grieving mother of a baby snatched decades ago from its hospital crib; Emma, a young woman teetering on the verge of a nervous breakdown; Judith, Emma’s estranged, eccentric mum; and Kate, the reporter who senses a sensational story and will leave no stone unturned to get to the truth.

‘The Child’ is a cleverly woven mystery thriller of loss, guilt, infatuation and long-held secrets, with sneaky twists and an ending that will take your breath away. It is a slow burner, teasing out the plot until the last few chapters, when it explodes into a frantic page turner. So much more satisfying than Bartons’s debut novel ‘The Widow’, which I felt finished flat and disappointing.

I love the idea of having a reporter rather than a detective as the chief protagonist in a crime thriller. Barton’s journalism background lends great authenticity to this approach and it makes for a very interesting slant. I was pleased to see the character of Kate getting rounded out in this book. To be honest, she wasn’t very likeable in ‘The Widow’, coming across as a hard-nosed reporter prepared to use all kinds of nasty tricks to get her story. Here, she’s been given a husband and two grown-up sons, so she immediately becomes more human and relatable. Yes, she still wants her scoop, but she’s genuinely protective of the people concerned and gets quite emotionally involved as the case pans out.

Barton has an easy and engaging writing style and successfully avoids bewildering complexity while still delivering a reasonably elaborate plot. The story is narrated from alternating perspectives, but only Emma’s is told in her own voice. Hers is thus the loudest and most vivid, perhaps rightly so. That said, I think Angela’s story could have been delivered directly as well. As a mum, it’s hard to imagine anything more gut-wrenching than the unsolved disappearance of a child. A first-person narrative from Angela would have delivered the emotional punch needed to amplify her feelings.

I believe Barton is onto a real winner with Kate Waters, who has the potential to evolve into a great heroine. I look forward to reading about her next case.

Thanks for reading my review. I hope you found it helpful. You can find more candid book reviews on my Amazon profile page.

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