The Child by Fiona Barton

review by Maryom


When builders demolishing a row of houses find a buried baby's body it's barely worth a few lines in a newspaper - but three woman can't ignore them. For Emma, it brings back memories of something that she thought was long forgotten. For Angela, it's a reminder of the child she lost over forty years before. For Kate, it's the hint of a story that could be huge. 

With the help of her police contact, Bob Sparkes, journalist Kate is soon on the trail of Angela's missing baby. Left for a few minutes while Angela went to shower, baby Alice was taken from her cot in a maternity ward, and no further trace ever found. The police enquiry at the time came up with no leads and was eventually dropped. Is there an outside chance that this newly discovered baby could be Alice? Although she's carried the hope that one day her baby would be found, this would at least give Angela, a chance for closure. How, though, does Emma fit into the story? As a child and teenager she and her mother lived in the area now about to be demolished. She never knew her father, and left home while still young after arguments with, and about, her mother's new boyfriend, but something that happened in her teenage years has haunted her ever since. 

Fiona Barton's debut novel, The Widow, was a huge hit, and personally I think The Child is better - even though I'd guessed the plot twist quite early on, the writing had me hooked and I had to finish the story. Events unfold with alternating chapters told from the perspectives of the three main female characters, and occasionally the odd one from Emma's mother, Jude, and the reader gets to really see inside their heads - to share their hopes and fears - while being teased along by the gradual revealing of secrets.

Kate Waters, the journalist we were introduced to in The Widow, returns with more of a central role. Her police contact, Bob Sparkes, appears again, but his is more of a brief 'cameo', and I liked the way the emphasis of 'detecting' is moving from the police to a reporter (or perhaps two if apprentice Joe becomes a permanent fixture). There's nothing  that says crime, fictional crime at least, has to be solved by the police - Miss Marple is one of my all time favourite crime-busters, and the Annika Bengtzon series by Liza Marklund, which I love, has a reporter at the forefront of nosing out and solving a mystery. I hope Kate will remain at the centre of further stories in the series.


Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Penguin
Genre - adult crime fiction

The Widow by Fiona Barton

review by Maryom

Until three years ago, Jean and Glen Taylor were an average unremarkable couple. Then Glen was accused of the abduction and murder of a small girl, Bella Elliott. Since then, their life has revolved around his attempts to clear himself. Now Glen's dead, and to be honest Jean isn't really sad he's gone, but reporters are besieging her house and at last she's ready to tell her side of the story....

The Widow is the story, not of the accused, but of the loyal wife who stood quietly by his side through court appearances and as he faced the Press. She's seen often enough in newspaper photos or on TV, but no one asks what she knows or how she feels. Does she believe her husband guilty as charged, or does she truly, completely, believe him to be innocent? For Jean the initial allegations came as a shock; her Glen would never do such a thing! But gradually the police investigation reveals a side to Glen's character that she'd never guessed at - so what else might she have been mistaken about? While Glen is held by police awaiting his trial, Jean has to put a brave face on things and face the everyday world, coping with the suspicions of her neighbours, work-colleagues, and even family, and dealing with the barrage of reporters all after a story.

The story is told mainly from three points of view - that of Jean, of reporter Kate Waters, intent on grabbing an exclusive interview, and of detective Bob Sparkes, who never gave up on his belief that Glen Taylor was the man responsible for Bella's abduction. The three story-lines move between the present, just after Glen's death, and the events which were triggered three years ago with the disappearance of Bella, and weave round each other showing Jean's changing attitude towards her husband, the tricks that Kate uses to win her confidence and exploit a seemingly vulnerable woman, and the dogged pursuit embarked on by Bob Sparkes, even at the risk of his career.

 Before I started reading this, I was aware that the reviews appearing from bloggers were a bit mixed - some praising it highly, some unimpressed - but that's always the sort of reaction to get me reading a book and this time I'm glad I did. I think if, from the tag 'psychological thriller', you're expecting Gone Girl style over the top character and events, The Widow may leave you feeling a little flat. This is a much more subtle tale about people who could be anyone you know - your friends, your neighbours, even your own family - and, for me, this is why it works. Jean starts out a little meek and mild, almost adoring the ground Glen walks on, and certainly too gullible when it comes to accepting some of his stories about work, but as events unfold, the balance in their relationship changes till she becomes the stronger partner and her husband reliant on her.

Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Bantam Press
Genre - adult, crime, psychological thriller