The Child, Fiona Barton

The Child

By Fiona Barton

(Tansley Reads Rating: 60%)

Icebreaker

Think of yourself as a young child saying: - “When I grow up I will be, or, I will do”. Has it come true?

 

Questions

 

1.  What is the role of journalism in this book?

2.  Do you think media help or hinder the police during crime investigations?

                     

3.  Were you confused by the introduction of the cast of characters? Did you write the names down and need to refer to your notes throughout the book?

 

4. Why do you think this “cold case” investigation is so important to Kate initially, and does her motivation change over the course of the novel?

 

5. Jude didn’t have a good relationship with her own mother or with Emma. On page 43, we read “From the moment she’d brought Emma home, she’d been determined to have a completely different bond with her daughter from the tense relationship she had had with her own mother.” Was the relationship between Jude and Emma one of love or convenience?

 

 

6.  Jude seems to “live angry” all the time. Why?

                     

7.  When Emma was 13 or 14 she and Harry, at Harry’s urging, go to Brighton to try and find Emma’s father. Would Emma have looked for her father without Harry’s urging.

 

8.  How was the story line affected by the detail the author included about Soames and Will’s “game”?

 

9.  There are several people in Emma's life with whom she could have shared the story of her rape and pregnancy (her mother/Jude, her best friend/ Harry, her husband, various doctors and therapists even the police). Why does she choose Kate, the reporter?

 

 

10.  Why would Emma have allowed Angela and Kate to go to the funeral but not Nick and Paul?

 

                     

11.  Fiona Barton includes many clues/hints throughout the book. Which one did you find most clever or creative?

 

 

 14:  Quick round: What did you think of the book? Is there anything you want to discuss that we missed?