The Child: the clever, addictive, must-read Richard and Judy Book Club bestseller

I bought this book based on the reviews. It's sat on my shelf for a long time though as I hadn't been particularly inspired by the cover or the blurb (shallow I know but the cover makes a difference!)It is 431 pages split into 86 chapters.This story feels like it has been written many times before. The structure is solid but the plot gets very complicated very quickly which is unnecessary.There are too many mysteries at the start and the twist becomes obvious to everyone but the characters. I expected the narrative to improve as the book moved on but it didn't. I decided the book couldn't really decided what it wanted to be - murder mystery? crime drama? psychological thriller? Maybe it doesn't need a label but it did need to excel at something and didn't.There is a level of entertainment but I had expected this novel to be much better and flow more smoothly.It's highly rated and I tried very hard to like this story but there was too much cliche and everything was too obvious.I might suggest that someone reads this on a beach over a day when you've nothing else to do and nothing else to concentrate on. There is, however, no challenge in reading this book and nothing to be learnt from it.

I had read and enjoyed quite a few books from Richard and Judys book club and when I was struggling with what to read next I ended up buying this.This book was a real easy read although very heart wrenching at times. It had me gripped from start to finish and I would now try other books by this author.If you enjoy thrillers with twists and turns then this book is definitely for you! I have read quite a few thrillers and do find that they can be quite repetitive and you can often guess the twist but I couldn’t with this until right before I read it.

Wow what a read. I honestly couldn't recommend this book enough, what a fantastic book to start the new year! The story was gripping, clever and compelling; I read most of it in one seating.Full of suspense and heart-stopping! I got a tad bit teary by the end and that twist?!?! A very superbly executed thriller that is a MUST-READ!!!

A poor quality read. The story is so predictable, and the characters so thin. There are a lot of 'coincidences' in this book. It seemed like it was set in the 1980's, not 2010's, e.g . workman, builders drinking beer in pubs at lunch time! If you like trash that requires you to have no brain cells, it is the book for you.

I enjoyed reading this book but the ending was so obvious about a third of the way in, I got frustrated that none of the characters had the brains to work it out by chapter 30!!