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    The Child
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    The Child
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    The Child
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Child

    Written by Fiona Barton

    Narrated by Rosalyn Landor, Mandy Williams and Jean Gilpin

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The author of the stunning New York Times bestseller The Widow returns with a brand-new novel of twisting psychological suspense.

    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…

    Read by Mandy Williams, Rosalyn Landor, Jean Gilpin, Katharine McEwan, and Steve West

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 27, 2017
    ISBN9781524779931
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for The Child

    4/5

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    • 3/5
      When the skeleton of a dead baby, probably decades old, is found on a building site it warrants little more than a paragraph in a newspaper, barely noticed by most people and soon forgotten. However, for Angela, whose baby was abducted forty years earlier from the maternity ward; Emma, whose mother Jude, threw her out of home when she was sixteen and for Kate, an investigative journalist looking for her next big scoop, this is the beginning of an investigation which will unearth long-hidden secrets. Told through the voices of these four characters this is a dark and disturbing story about how an unresolved event can influence people’s lives and relationships and how, when one piece of the story becomes exposed, carefully erected defences come crashing down, with traumatic effects on all concerned. I thought that the author handled the different voices and time-lines in a convincing way and that each of her characters was credible. Her portrayal of sleazy characters involved in the drugging and sexual exploitation of young women was very disturbing in its absolute believability. I thought she captured the long-term anguish of loss and grief in a very powerful and haunting way. I frequently found myself moved to tears as I followed the traumas some of the characters had faced, and how these had blighted not only their lives, but the lives of those around them. I enjoyed the exploration of motherhood: of what makes a good mother, how to achieve a balance between supporting and smothering, and whether major conflicts and rejections during childhood can be resolved in later life.I quickly found myself liking the character of Kate and the fact that her emerging feelings for the subject of her “scoop” soon became equally important as her desire for the story. However, at a time of redundancies at her paper, I thought the fact that she was able to devote so much time to a story with such very tenuous basis in provable fact required a considerable suspension of incredulity! That apart, I found this a reasonably compelling story, with its various strands being gradually inter-woven in a skilful way. Although there were lots of red-herrings and twists and turns, I did guess quite a number of aspects of the eventual outcome – perhaps I am reading too many books in this genre! My main criticism is that, although this is a well-told story, I thought that it was over-long and that it required more editing, particularly in the final third. However, I am now tempted to read the author’s debut novel, The Widow.
    • 4/5
      A journalist tracks down the identity of a newborn, who was abandoned shortly after birth.
    • 4/5
      The discovery of a newborn infant's remains at a construction site set off a search for the story behind the remains. Barton takes this base -- which, admittedly has been used before -- and leads the reader down a twisting trail before the truth surfaces.

      I did have some trouble, early on, keeping the different voices straight. Barton uses several POV narrators, which is often problematic. The failure to give each of these narrators a distinct and therefore immediately recognizable voice, loses points with me. She gets most of them back, however, with the final reveal. While I was on the correct general track for the solution, I'll admit I was still gobsmacked at the finale.

      First half of the book is a bit slow, but you will probably want to read the last half in a single sitting.
    • 4/5
      In Fiona Barton's "The Child," a workman clearing debris from a construction site in London unearths the skeletal remains of a baby. A journalist, Kate Waters, is intrigued with the case and starts her own inquiries, hoping to write a human-interest story. She discovers that a woman named Angela Irving gave birth twenty-eight years earlier, and left her hospital room in the maternity ward to take a shower. In the few minutes that she was gone, someone took Angela's newborn daughter, Alice, out of her cot. Angela suspects that the tiny skeleton is Alice, but should she pursue the matter? She decides that she would rather know the truth than continue to wait and wonder about her newborn's fate.

      Barton alternates points of view, using the first person when Emma Simmonds narrates. Emma is an emotional wreck who works from home as a book editor, but sometimes takes pills to alleviate depression and anxiety. She has been harboring a terrible secret for a long time that is tearing her up inside. In addition, she is stuck with an overbearing, narcissistic, and selfish mother, Jude Massingham, who rarely has a nice word to say.

      This is an involving novel of psychological suspense that, unfortunately, relies on a number of clichés (buried baby found after many years, people keeping vital information from friends and family, aggressive reporter chasing every lead) but, to her credit, Barton creates well-rounded characters whom we get to know well. Jude is the proverbial mother from hell who treats her daughter with contempt; Emma and Angela are weighed down by heavy burdens that make their lives unbearable; and Kate Waters is a sharp, assertive, and resourceful reporter who frequently skirts the borders of propriety to get a jump on her competitors. Kate may not be a piranha, but no one would mistake her for Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Waters makes a show of cooperating with the police in an effort to unravel a tangled web of deceit that has poisoned a number of lives. "The Child" contains breezy dialogue and juicy (albeit predictable) plot twists that bring all of the disparate threads together. This work of fiction should appeal to fans of domestic dramas in which shocking and long-hidden revelations come to light, with far-reaching consequences for everyone involved.
    • 4/5
      When a newborn baby’s skeleton is dug up on a construction site, a reporter, Kate, wants to find out what happened. In her investigation, she comes across Angela, whose newborn baby disappeared in the 70s, and Emma, who as a teenager in the 80s, was living with her mom and her mom’s boyfriend at the location where the skeleton was found. The book mostly follows the perspective of these three women, though a few other perspectives are thrown in there, as well. This hooked me at the start and it has short chapters, which kept me wanting to read. I guess this is the 2nd book involving reporter Kate, and there were a few mentions of bits of what happened in the other book, so I will be seeking out the other book to read, as well. I caught on to the ending just about as Kate did, I think, but it wasn’t spelled out until a couple of pages later.
    • 3/5
      The main characters of The Child are all intriguing. There is Kate the reporter following up on a story of a baby’s remains found buried during a construction dig. Angela is the mother of a baby that was kidnapped from the hospital just hours after her birth and has never had closure. Emma is a surprise POV; she lived at the location that the baby remains were found. I found it interesting how different their lives were yet together the stories all came together perfectly.There were secrets, intrigue, and surprises that I never saw coming. The mystery was not hard to solve but with each different twist and turn I learned more about the various characters. I was invested in Kate getting her story, Angela getting her closure, and Emma coming to terms with her teenage years. There is so much more to this story than meets the eyes. The ending was the surprise. The Child is certainly a psychological thriller that kept me on my toes. I could not put the book down.
    • 5/5
      A workman demolishing an old house discovers human remains of a baby. Kate Waters, a reporter, unearths connections to a newborn stolen from a maternity ward decades earlier. Long buried secrets of three woman will finally come to light. This fast-paced thought provoking story kept me guessing to the very surprising ending. Some characters are likable but some not so likable. Recommended to those who like psychological suspense.
    • 3/5
      I didn't realize characters from Barton's The Widow were part of this book until a third of the way through. It's not necessary to read the earlier book to understand this book, but it was nice to have some history and a different perspective on the earlier book, as well.
      I had the mystery figured out about half way through The Child, but kept reading anyway to see how everything turned out. So, not a tense thriller in the least, but interesting enough to keep me reading.
    • 5/5
      This book held my interest from Word One to the last punctuation. The premise is, there is a decades-old skeleton of a baby found in a neighborhood that is under construction. The secrets that swaddle the long-lost baby unfurl from there, with unimaginable twists throughout. I absolutely give this five stars and have already started on my next Fiona Barton masterpiece. Highly recommended!
    • 4/5
      There's no 'sophomore jinx' for Fiona Barton; 'The Child' is a strong followup to 'The Widow', with similarly crafty plotting and solid, if unspectacular, writing. Barton's an ex-journalist and the main character in both her first books, Kate Waters, is a reporter, so she's mining territory she knows well.In 'The Child', the skeleton of a baby is unearthed at a construction site in London. Kate's interested in making a story of it and she's determined to solve the mystery of who it is and how it got there. In the meantime two other women have an even stronger interest in the identity of the skeleton. Working with her police contacts, Kate makes progress and the holy grail of modern police work, DNA, comes to the rescue once again. Or does it?Kate Waters is a very strong character, and Barton does a fine job developing the other folks involved in the story as well. I don't think dialogue is her strong point, but otherwise the narrative is very straightforward and relatively easy to follow. My only challenge was in keeping the characters straight- chapters are written with the narrator following one of the characters at a time, so in some cases the story is advancing and in others there's just a different perspective being shown of action that's already been described. Not a big deal, just took some getting used to.I've really enjoyed Barton's first two novels. She can really create a good plot and tell a story, her characters are excellent, and the writing is competent. Looking forward to more from her!
    • 3/5
      A satisfying enough story but I could see the ending coming from the middle of the third chapter.
    • 5/5
      First, to get it out of the way, this wasn't as good as "The Widow". However, it was enjoyable in its own right. A small plot that slowly meanders through the novel building tension until the conclusion. A baby's body is found buried on a construction site in a spot that once was someone's patio. The baby is eventually identified but the evidence shows it was buried ten years later than it died. Told in one of my favourite narratives, using the pont of view of four women: a reporter and three others who are all eventually tied to the case in one way or another. It was quite puzzling trying to figure out what connction these women had but I had an inkling early on and loved following the plot to prove my theory correct by the end. Second novels raely hit the attention of a bestselling first, but this was a darn good psychological thriller.
    • 4/5
      A new-born baby's skeleton is found on an area being cleared for building; a woman whose new born child went missing many years ago; a reporter who is fighting to keep her job on a newspaper that is rapidly going on-line and just covering celebrities etc. All these three factors come together to make a very enjoyable read that twists and turns in a very satisfying way.
    • 4/5
      I've labelled this as mystery (or wtf happened). It makes a change from pyscho dramas. Its sort of a return to the old fashioned detective books, where you trust the detective, in this case newspaper reporter, to tell you what is actually happening as she finds it out. It is formatted in numerous dated, short chapters, in the manner of girl on a train, but somehow less annoying. And I actually care what happens to the characters, since the character of Kate is quite warm and the events that happen are fairly realistic and are both current and probably unfortunately far too common. We cannot seem to know how often men think it is acceptable to drug and rape vulnerable women who they have power over.
    • 4/5
      A short newspaper article describing the discovery of the skeletal remains of an infant draws together four women and this book is written in alternating chapters from their points of view. Most of the women have husbands but they don't really count in this book. Angela's baby Alice was taken from a maternity ward 4 decades ago and she has mourned her loss ever since. Emma is emotionally disturbed and harboring secrets. Jude is Emma's estranged mother. Kate is a newspaper reporter who is intrigued by the initial article and is determined to find the story behind the buried infant. I don't usually like women's fiction but this book didn't bore me, which is a huge accomplishment for this genre. Once a few facts were revealed it was pretty easy to guess where this book was headed. Nonetheless it held my interest and I found the story compelling. An indication of how much I was enjoying this book is the fact that I kept wanting to go back to it in spite of the fact that I was reading it on an app that was, to put it mildly, a giant pain in the ass.I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
    • 4/5
      I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.The remains of a newborn baby are discovered on a building site in Woolwich and Kate, a reporter, is drawn to the story and investigates who this baby might have been. Angela and Nick's baby, Alice, was taken from the maternity hospital in 1970 while Angela was in the shower. Initially it seems that the baby might be Alice. However, there is another woman, Emma, who used to live on the street in Woolwich which is being redeveloped, and she has a secret she has never told anyone.This was an excellent story, told at a good pace. In contrast to "The Widow", almost all the investigating is being done by Kate (as opposed to the police), which keeps things more linear. Joe, Kate's trainee, provided a little light relief now and then and there was just enough of Kate's personal life to make her seem "real" without it becoming distracting. The chapters switch between the perspectives of Kate, Emma and Angela for the most part. At the beginning, especially as I couldn't really work out how Emma fitted into everything, I kept getting confused between the Emma and Angela chapters, but gradually they separated out for me.I did not see the big twist coming, and although it worked for me and made sense of SPOILERS Jude's tendency to prefer her partners over her daughter, I did wonder how she managed to persuade the authorities that Emma was her daughter - how did Emma get a birth certificate?Recommended and definitely a better plot than "The Widow".
    • 5/5
      The Child from Fiona Barton is part mystery and part family drama. In Barton's hands the combination is quite rewarding and keeps the readers turning pages for more than simply one reason.Like any mystery, readers work through scenarios in their mind as they read and will usually stumble across the correct solution at some point, so just ignore those readers who want to claim they "knew" what happened almost from the beginning. I don't doubt that the actual solution crossed their minds, it likely did the vast majority of readers, no special talent or intellect involved. I also feel very sorry for those who read rich novels for no purpose beyond playing a literary version of "I can name that tune..." and then claim things that are bogus about their sleuthing abilities. This book offers so much more than simply who did what pertaining to the main mystery. There are multiple smaller mysteries along the way that, because of when characters are introduced, could not have been "solved" at the beginning of the book. There is also the human aspect, seeing how different people might respond to different situations, and the degree to which a reader can empathize with them. This is different from liking or disliking a character as if they were real people in your life that you have to decide whether to like or not. The twists and turns in this novel will certainly have you reconsidering your ideas in much the same way an actual detective doesn't, or at least shouldn't, make a snap decision about guilt and never consider other options as they come up. That is why there are so many innocent people behind bars, the inability of some to continue to collect and synthesize information as it comes available. The family drama aspect of this book was what I actually found most interesting, the ways in which people will act, react, then rationalize their actions to better present a version of themselves they can like, or at least that others may not dislike. As readers we are privy to far more than in real life situations so we can take the easy route and dislike these people (not much challenge or effort required for that) or we can try to understand them from their perspectives even though we really wouldn't like that person in real life. That is a far more challenging and enriching way to read any novel but particularly one that deals with dysfunctional families and individuals.I would highly recommend this to readers who enjoy mysteries and dramas about family relationships. Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads.
    • 4/5
      3.5 I had recently taken a break from thrillers, they had all started to blend together. Never read this authors first book either, but something about this book, the beautiful blue cover and the synopsis, enticed me enough to read. When an old building is being demolished the bones of a newborn are found. Kate, a journalist, trying to hold on in the new world of internet news, finds something about this discovery that makes her want to find the truth behind the discovery. Her search will end up involving three other women, each with a shocking story to tell.I really took to the character of Kate, her doggedness, and insights. Also liked how this story was laid out, alternating chapters between the characters, gives us a chance to follow right along as the story unfolds. This format tends to work with thrillers quite well. Although I was ahead of Kate in her discoveries, kind of knew where this was going, it was still Interesting enough for me to keep going. Was suspenseful enough without being shocking or graphic, and there were enough side things going on to keep me turning the pages.ARC from publisher.
    • 5/5
      An infant's body is found in a poor section of London that is undergoing a renewal. Reporter Kate Waters thinks that there is a story in this tragedy worth telling. She is not wrong. However, the secrets she uncovers as she proceeds to dig for the truth are more than she expected to find, and much more than I as a reader expected. This is a compelling tale that has profound consequences for many people that made me not want to stop reading.
    • 5/5
      Fiona Barton's second novel, The Child, releases on Tuesday, June 27/17. I figure if I give you a heads up today, you too can spend a day on the beach next weekend devouring it - I did!Barton is a former journalist. Her first book, The Widow, (my 5 star review) took inspiration from real life, trials and newspaper stories, as does the lead character in The Child.Kate, a reporter, sees this story " 'Baby's Body Found.' Two small sentences told how an infant's skeleton had been unearthed on a building site..." And she wonders "Who is the baby? How did it die? Who would bury a baby?"What a great premise - I too want to know the answers. Kate is not the only person to see the news story. The Child is told from four alternating points of view - that of Kate and three other women. Each of those three has a reason to hope - or fear - their own ties to the little skeleton. I love multiple point of view books - the reader is privy to the information that each character is holding - or hiding. And we can only hold our breath as (in this case) Kate gets closer and closer to the truth. Now, that being said, I thought I had fit the pieces together about halfway through the book. But, as one character also says..."I don't know what to think anymore. Everything is wrong. I've got everything wrong." I was quite happy to not have guessed!The Child is a character driven novel of suspense. Kate is a wonderful lead. I wonder if there are bits of Barton's own journalistic days woven into her character? The details of the investigation and newsroom ring very true. The other three women are just as well drawn - their connections to the child are quite poignant, shocking and in one case absolutely infuriating. I'm deliberately being obtuse - The Child is a story you need unfold and discover as the pieces are slowly put together. Although I will say this - motherhood is a prominent theme and thread that ties the four stories together. "Disturbing the surface had triggered an eruption of unexpected secrets."The Child was an absolutely addicting pager turner for this reader! Definitely recommended
    • 4/5
      A body of a new born baby is discovered in a building site. Kate Waters, a reporter starts to look into the story. Angela Irving is convinced the body is her baby Alice that was taken from the hospital. Emma Simmonds however is convinced otherwise.I read The Widow and enjoyed it so looked forward to reading The Child which features reporter Kate Waters in both. I really enjoyed this story.The story switches between the three women who are all connected with the baby in the building site. It's a very intriguing story which held my interest till the very end. The ending was satisfying as some can be a let down after a big build up. Towards the end as it all starts to come clear I did think it was going one way but it ended a way I didn't expect.This story isn't full of twists and turns but keeps the readers interest with the story of the baby, waiting for it all to be revealed. A very enjoyable read and I will look out for my by Fiona Barton in the future.
    • 4/5
      A page turner from beginning to end. A baby's body is found while construction workers are tearing down some old houses. Who's baby is it?? A reporter gets involved and senses a real story. The body is ID'd as the missing baby of a woman who's baby was kidnapped 40 years ago. But a second person claims it is her baby and she buried it 30 years ago. What??? Great suspense to try and figure this one out. Nice ending. Great twist.
    • 4/5
      Just who is the "Building Site Baby"? The bones of a newborn found when tearing down old houses that had been there for while has everyone talking. Who's baby is it? How long has it been there? Journalist Kate Waters sees the bit post in a competing newspaper and decides that it would make a good human interest story. She decides to investigate it further and see what really happened to this baby and just who is this baby?This synopsis made for a really good read. I had previously read "The Widow" by Fiona Barton and when I saw this one listed on Net Galley, I immediately hit request. I was very excited when my request was approved. And, after reading it, I think that Fiona's first book was much better, however, this one is not one to stay away from. I never saw the ending coming until way into the book which is always a pleasant surprise. An entertaining read that kept me wondering.Huge thanks to Berkley Publishing Group and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
    • 4/5
      The Child by Fiona Barton is a story centered around the finding of an infant's remains.This is a very good story. Full of twists and turns that I did not see coming. This book is very well written, and we hear the story unfold from several points of view. This would have been a five star read, but some of the characters seemed one in the same to me. I would have liked more character development. Overall, this is a four star read for me.I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
    • 4/5
      Fiona Barton's The Child is a story that rapidly draws you in and won't let you go until everyone's secrets have been revealed. The style of this book is reminiscent of Kate Atkinson in the manner in which the story unfolds. Told in alternating chapters by Kate and the three women involved-- Angela, Emma, and Jude-- the voices may not be particularly distinctive, but their stories kept me guessing clear through to the end.Barton definitely has a knack for creating memorable characters and strong storylines. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.
    • 4/5
      Now that I have had a taste of what author, Fiona Barton is all about with this book, I plan to go back and check out The Widow. Instantly, I connected with the story and the characters. Although, I was surprised that this was a very character driven story. What I mean by this is that sometimes in thriller books I find myself gravitating more towards the main lead character and killer. Yet, in this story, there was not a killer or was there? There was just three women. Two whose stories intersect with one another. The person responsible for helping to put all of the pieces together is journalist, Kate Waters. Kate is a strong character. Although, I do wish that she would have taken more credit for herself a little more. Yet, she is right on point with her journalist skills. Back to the story. After reading this story a while, some readers may pick up on where the story is going like me. However, I can guarantee you that you will still enjoy how the story ends. The Child will have you lost for hours (in a good way) with engaging characters.
    • 4/5
      I was very impressed with Fiona Barton's first book, "The Widow" so I was very excited to be able to read an advanced copy of "The Child".Workman are demolishing an old house in London when they come across the skeleton of a baby buried long ago. A journalist named Kate Waters quickly sees the potential of this heartbreaking find and begins a search for the identity of "the building site baby". Kate doesn't know it yet but she is about to uncover the secrets of the current and former residents of this neighborhood. Some secrets are too terrible to bear.The strength of the book is definitely in the characters. Their feelings and actions are so real that you cannot but help to either have compassion for them or really despise them. There are also so many twists and turns in the story and I loved how the story just flowed. In some ways, I enjoyed this novel even more than "The Widow" but both are amazing. This is one book that will stay with me for a long time. If you loved "The Widow" then you will definitely want to read this one.I received a copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley for free in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      The Child is a story with three strands, all revolving around the discovery of a newborn baby's skeleton on a building site in Woolwich. One of the strands features journalist, Kate Waters, who I understand appeared in Fiona Barton's first novel, The Widow. I haven't read that book yet, but there was only a small mention of her back story in The Child so no problem if you haven't read The Widow yet either.It took quite a bit of getting into the story, I think because there are these three separate strands that, although I could see they were linked, were still very separate for quite a bit of the story. The threads only really start to properly merge quite late on. Despite this, I did find myself being pulled into the stories of these three women. Emma is a damaged individual, both by circumstances and events. Angela is forever reliving the worst thing that could have happened to her. And Kate is chasing a story but finds herself getting more involved than she should. I liked Kate as a character very much. She's strong and experienced but has a softer side. Her interaction with a trainee made me smile and illustrated how journalism has changed with the advent of online news reporting. I guess Fiona Barton is using a lot of her own experiences there.I loved how the story was uncovered by Kate as we went along. There's a bit of a twist at the end that I only just saw coming before I read it and that was quite clever as I was constantly wondering how the stories would be connected.The Child is an extremely well constructed novel. After that slightly slow start the pace suddenly picked up and swept me along towards the very satisfying conclusion. I know books featuring journalists aren't exactly unusual but I really enjoyed Kate's investigations and it made a change from reading about detectives.I thought this was a really great psychological read that kept me interested throughout.
    • 3/5
      This was a good story and I found it to be very readable. I was really drawn into the idea behind the mystery. I wasn't blown away by the story but I did enjoy my time reading this one. I found that the pages of this book went by pretty quickly. I am glad that I decided to pick up this book.This story is told from three main points of view. Kate is a reporter who is intrigued by the discovery of the remains of a newborn baby and decides to try to find out what really happened. Angela is the mother of a newborn baby that was taken from the hospital shortly after her birth. Emma lived in the area that the baby's remains were found when she was growing up and is very troubled by the news of the discovery.I did like the characters in this book. Kate was smart and resourceful. She really did everything in her power to find out what really happened. Angela has been through a nightmare. I could only imagine how difficult the years have been since her baby disappeared. Emma was a bit of a mystery at the beginning of the story. She has had issues in her past and seemed somewhat fragile. There were a lot of other interesting characters that are met in this story and I think each of them were well done.The mystery seemed rather obvious to me pretty early in the book. I kept waiting for something to happen that would make me realize that I was wrong but it never happened. I have had other readers tell me that they didn't figure anything out until the end of the book so maybe I will be in the minority with thinking the solution was too easy to figure out. I really don't like it when I can predict the solution to a mystery long before any of the detectives seem to have even the slightest clue. I think it just takes something away from a mystery when you are able to figure things out too early. I did like the author's writing style. I think that the multiple points of view worked really well in this story since each character had an important piece of the puzzle. Besides the main mystery revolving around the baby's remains there were some other issues that came up in this book and I thought everything worked very well together. I would recommend this one to fans of mystery thrillers. This is the first book by Fiona Barton that I have read and I look forward to reading more very soon.I received an advance reader edition of this book from Berkley Publishing Group via First to Read.
    • 3/5
      I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.What I loved about this book was how many twists and turns there were. Barton, as she did in The Widow, keeps her readers on their toes. She does this really effectively through having each chapter alternate points of view. This enables Barton to add layer upon layer to the story without giving everything away. A character may drop a hint about something, and then readers find themselves in another character's head, looking at everything a different way.I also really liked that Barton brought Kate back, a character from The Widow, and made her such a focus in this story. Kate is a strong, smart female character who works well as the backbone of The Child.The one thing I didn't love about this book was I did feel I was able to call some of the bigger twists towards the end. I would have liked to be a little more surprised at some points. If you liked The Widow, or if you're a fan in general of well-crafted psychological thrillers with lots of suspense, I would definitely recommend The Child.