Kate’s investigation brings her to Angela Irving, another woman who reacted powerfully to the discovery of the baby’s skeleton. Emma discourages her, and we learn that Emma has good reason for disliking him: He convinced Jude to kick Emma out when she was just 16. He has contacted her recently, and Jude is considering re-igniting their relationship. Jude isn’t interested in the story she wants to discuss her ex-boyfriend, Will. Instead, she gets in touch with her mother, Jude, to ask if she has seen the news about the grim discovery at a site not far from their old house. Nevertheless, she hides her feelings from her husband, Paul, an academic. Although she is a long-term anxiety sufferer, this is her worst episode yet. Meanwhile, editor Emma Simmonds has also spotted the story, but her reaction is very different: Crushing anxiety torments her.

Intrigued and a little moved by the story, Kate decides to dig for answers, hoping to turn up a bigger story. The novel opens as London-based newspaper reporter Kate Waters notes a small article in a rival newspaper, reporting that a baby’s skeleton has been found at the bulldozed site of a building in the city. The follow-up to Barton’s acclaimed debut, The Widow, which also featured Daily Post journalist Kate Waters, The Child was well received by critics, who praised the thematic depth underlying the novel’s mystery plot: “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” (Kirkus Reviews).

The Child (2017), a novel by British author Fiona Barton, follows four women who are drawn together when a baby’s remains are discovered at a London building site.

The widow by fiona barton summary