The Child by Fiona Barton

“It’s not your fault.”

Kate Waters is a reporter, investigating the death of a baby found at a construction site. Angela becomes convinced the baby is her long lost infant, kidnapped from the maternity ward in the 70s. Emma is an emotionally fragile housewife following the case, even inserting herself into it, because she’s hiding dark secrets of her own. Jude, Emma’s mother, has a strained relationship with her daughter after throwing her out of the house when she was a teenager.

The formatting of this book is unusual. The book blurb on the cover of my edition insists that Kate is the main character of the story, but Emma’s chapters are written in 1st person point of view which makes it seem as though she’s the most important person in the book. Kate, Angela and Jude all have chapters written in 3rd person POV which makes it seem like all three should take a backseat to Emma. I believe Kate does in fact have the most chapters dedicated to her investigation into how the three other women are connected to the decades old skeleton of an infant which makes me wonder why the author would bother with a 1st person character at all.

However, this is possibly one of the more emotional mysteries I’ve read in a long time. What victim could be as innocent as a baby? Kate’s investigation into the child brings her to Angela and Emma whose stories are absolutely heartbreaking, and eventually to Jude who is unlikeable and in for a rude awakening.

I never saw the ending coming and I do love a good plot twist where mysteries are concerned. There’s nothing worse than guessing the ending by the half way point. A good mystery writer should be like a good magician: I want to be surprised. And with this book, I was.

This is book 2 in a series, but it does read like a standalone, so you don’t need to read the 1st to understand the 2nd.

Mysteries are tough to review because I always run the risk of spoiling the answers. So here is where I’ll end it today: Give this book a shot if you like mysteries and/or books that make you cry at the end.