The Child

Starred review from March 6, 2017
Canny London tabloid reporter Kate Waters, the catalyst for Barton’s devastating debut The Widow, returns in this strong if more subdued psychological thriller centering on a trio of women unknowingly linked by long-buried secrets about to be unearthed. Book editor Emma Simmonds has been battling for decades with depression, as has the single mother, Jude Massingham, who threw her out of the house when she was just 16. Former nurse Angela Irving has never gotten over the kidnapping of her newborn daughter from a maternity hospital 28 years earlier, a heartbreak worsened by police suspicion of her and her husband. Emma, Jude, and Angela are each riveted, for reasons that will only gradually emerge, by an item in a newspaper reporting the excavation of an infant’s skeleton at an East London building site. Kate, who could really use another major scoop to help keep her job, is also drawn to the story. Readers patient with the relatively slow initial pace until the intertwining stories gain momentum will be rewarded with startling twists—and a stunning, emotionally satisfying conclusion. Author tour. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency (U.K.).

April 15, 2017
Three women's lives become entwined when a newborn's skeleton is discovered beneath a bulldozed London building site, exposing secrets buried as deep as the fragile bones.Journalist Kate Waters--who appeared in Barton's debut, The Widow (2016), which also employed a multicharacter approach to a thorny crime--sees a throwaway mention in another paper of a baby's bones found during a construction project and files it away as a human-interest story she could pursue. Kate isn't the only one who's drawn to the Building Site Baby. Book editor Emma Simmonds, whose story Barton develops the most slowly but whose payoff is worth the wait, feels her anxiety skyrocket when she sees the article, though she hides her interest from her professor husband, Paul. Former nurse Angela Irving has the most visceral reaction: she's convinced the bones belong to her daughter, Alice, snatched in 1970 from the maternity hospital and never found despite the suspicion cast on Angela and her husband, Nick. As Kate develops the story at the Daily Post, it becomes clear that identifying the bones is only the first of many questions surrounding the case, particularly as details of Emma's potential involvement come to light. Barton flirts with melodrama at times but pulls back and allows her characters to develop into fully realized, deeply scarred women whose wounds aren't always visible. This is as much a why-dunit as a whodunit, with the real question being whether it's possible to heal and live with the truth after hiding behind a lie for so long.

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Starred review from April 15, 2017

The skeleton of a baby is found at a building site outside London. Journalist Kate Waters (introduced in Barton's debut, The Widow) persuades her editor to let her write the story. Her investigation uncovers connections to a decades-old unsolved case of a newborn stolen from a local hospital. The child's still-grieving parents jump at the possibility that the skeleton might be their lost daughter. Kate's search of the neighborhood for clues brings her in touch with both present and former residents, among them three young women, each of whom harbors secrets that might lead to a shocking development that could break the case and boost Kate's career. But she is caught between helping the police and exposing the identity of her journalistic sources. VERDICT Barton's second well-plotted outing, with its sustained tension and believable characters, is an excellent addition to the popular psychological thriller genre. Readers who liked Barton's first novel, Paula Hawkins's The Girl On a Train, and Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl will love this. [See Prepub Alert, 1/8/17.]--Susan Clifford Braun, Bainbridge Island, WA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2017
When workers unearth an infant's skeletal remains under a block of London flats, veteran reporter Kate Waters (introduced in The Widow, 2016) smells a huge story. Police reveal that the Building Site Baby was buried in the 1980s, and Kate's instincts lead her to the famous, unsolved disappearance of Alice Irving. Hoping the remains bring resolution, Alice's mother, Angela, allies with Kate to push for a DNA match. At the same time, Emma Simmonds is crumbling under the weight of secrets from her days living in the same flats, while her mother, Jude, holds fast to the denial that fueled their decades of estrangement. When DNA results identify the Building Site Baby as Alice, Kate is determined to discover how she ended up buried in a garden so shortly after she was taken. Barton's second missing-child story is a gut-wrenching tale of narcissism, cunning predators, and bare-knuckle survival. Predictable moments? Yes, but fans of character-driven investigations will prize these women's well-drawn paths to resolution over plot twists that may be anticipated.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)