2017,  Book Reviews,  Ebook,  Fiction,  Mystery,  Thriller

Book Review- The Child

Title: The Child

Author: Fiona Barton
Published: June 29th 2017
Pages: 368
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller


Rating: 4/5 stars

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… -Goodreads

I received a copy of this novel from Net Galley and Transworld Digital in return for an honest review.
This is a mystery thriller novel about a baby’s skeleton that is found buried in a garden. We follow Kate a journalist investigating the story, Angela a woman who’s baby daughter was stolen from the hospital, Jude and her daughter Emma. 
This novel is fast paced, and the 4 perspectives definitely helps to keep this pace up. The chapters are short and snappy, and this adds to the pacing, and keeps the mystery flowing. This novel is a quick read, but the overall narrative stayed with me, I found myself thinking about it after I put the book down.
My favourite part of the story, and the part that really makes the novel for me is the relationship between Emma and Jude. Seeing the ways their relationship has been strained and stretched, and how well the author manages to do this with so little showing of particular instances. I wanted to keep reading to see whether they could patch up their relationship throughout the novel, or whether past events made any reconciliation impossible. 
I also really enjoyed reading a novel from 4 women’s point of views, and although men were slightly involved in the story, they didn’t feature heavily in the novel at all. All the women were strong in their own ways, and Kate was facing quite a lot of gender prejudices in her role in journalism, but she fought them, and proved her worth as a journalist many times. This was reassuring and great to read all these strong women, all different, but all strong, well developed and well rounded characters.
This is a well crafted mystery/thriller novel, there were plenty of twists, and although some were a little predictable, these didn’t dampen my overall enjoyment, and this definitely rates highly in thrillers that I have read. 
Overall I really enjoyed this novel, I gave it 4/5 stars and it would be a great beach read which is perfect for this time of year!!  

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