Digital Reads Reviews

My review 

When the truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie – Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Fiona Barton, author of The Widow has come out with an absolute cracker of a story with her lead journalist Kate Waters from The Widow 

3 women Kate Waters, Angela Massingham, Emma Simmonds, 1 dead baby and a story around all of them. Fiona Barton weaves magic with her words connecting them, all together to make a great read. 

Kate Waters is the investigative journalist, who is trying to find out the identity of newborn baby whose skeleton has been found buried by the workers on a building site. She has been searching for the right story after the widow, till this information catches her eye. And she follows it with a gusto….

Angela and Nick have lost their baby Alice years ago in March 1970. Each year passing, kills their hope, bit by bit. Everyone seems to have forgotten their baby including the police and they want her to forget too… But she is a mother how can she forget her child, how can she forget the nine months of looking after her in her womb and losing her within an attention’s span. She is living in the present but with the darkness of the lost child hanging over her, every second of every day… 

Emma has a secret too, residing in the dark corners of her brain. She believes she knows something about the baby found but…. sleeping dogs should lie forever, shouldn’t they??. But all sleeps are broken and even a buried secret is unearthed by time. Emma has a strange relationship with her narcissistic self serving mother Jude and her husband, Paul, elder to her by twenty years. Emma herself quotes her relationships are bizarre, mum is like a cousin, husband is like a dad, and her baby… Is there a baby?? Where is it?? 

The investigation goes as most do with forensics. A shocking detail comes forth which caused goosebumps to appear and a chill ran down by back….. And that’s where the story becomes the suspense that it is. 

Fiona Barton has written well, the story flows nicely, chapters are short and they continue with each other. Story is told in the ladies’ voices. None of the supporting men have much role. I enjoyed this book more than the widow, I could connect more with the characters here. I wouldn’t call this a psychological thriller but it was a good suspense and I did guess the ending but was not disappointed by that. 

While reading the book I found a few discrepancies, baby Alice was lost in March 1970 and the story is set in 2012… but they keep on saying twenty years ago…  But that’s just minor, it may just grate in the minds of readers who like perfect timelines. I didn’t mind it so much, though I did go back a couple of times to verify the dates.. 

All in all, a good story, I read it in 4 hours, with twists which keep you absorbed throughout. 

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Random House, UK Transworld publishers and this is my honest and unbiased opinion 

My rating : 4 stars 

About the Author 

Fiona Barton, the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow and The Child, trains and works with journalists all over the world. Previously, she was a senior writer at the Daily Mail, news editor at the Daily Telegraph, and chief reporter at the Mail on Sunday, where she won Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards.
Book blurb 
When a paragraph in an evening newspaper reveals a decades-old tragedy, most readers barely give it a glance. But for three strangers it’s impossible to ignore.

For one woman, it’s a reminder of the worst thing that ever happened to her.

For another, it reveals the dangerous possibility that her darkest secret is about to be discovered.
And for the third, a journalist, it’s the first clue in a hunt to uncover the truth.
The Child’s story will be told.
Product Details 

Publication date : 29th June 2017

Publisher : Transworld Digital

Language : English 

Available on Amazon