The Child

Goodreads Description

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.

My Review

This is another novel that has been much anticipated by lovers of psychological fiction, myself included. Last year, I listened to the author's debut novel, The Widow, as an audiobook and I absolutely loved it. I could't wait for this book to be released and to get my hands on a copy.

This is a very easy reading novel, with short, punchy chapters. The chapter headings consist of different dates and names. So, each chapter is told from a different perspective and written by a different woman. As with many psychological thrillers, things aren't totally clear in the beginning and I wasn't sure how the four woman's stories tied up together, but that all fell perfectly into place as the story progressed. I've read a number of reviews by others stating that the book gets off to a very slow start, but I didn't really find that. It's pacing is like most psychological thrillers, meaning that it's slow to build, but it does build.

I felt that the character development was good, but with short chapters moving between the different people, it's quite difficult to really get to know any of them deeply. Having said that though, I did get a very clear sense of who each characters were and how different they were. And the characters on the periphery were also great.

There weren't many twists and turns throughout the story, and the one twist that I came across was somewhat foreseeable and it didn't come as a shock to me. But don't cry in your cups quite yet people, because the twist at the end of the story is a knock out...Wowzers! I never expected the twist, and any book that can stump me at the end, gets the thumbs up from me.

My Rating: * * * *

Publication Date: 27 June 2017 (South Africa)

Genre: Psychological thriller

Format: Trade paperback

Source: Review copy received from the publisher. Many thanks to author, Fiona Barton and Penguin Random House SA for my copy. It was my pleasure to read and review this title.