Thank you Fiona Barton for participating in our Q & A! It was great getting to know you and we look forward to reading more of your work!
About Fiona Barton…
Q & A – by Two Girls and a Book Obsession & Fiona Barton
Q – Some of the authors we have interviewed described their favorite places to write. We are amazed at how different they are! Some would rather write in a cozy cabin on the mountain side and some on a tropical island in a beach chair. Can you describe your favorite place to write? And Why…
A – I have a confession: I am a duvet writer. I prop myself up in bed like some sort of Dame Barbara Cartland. The trouble is, if I get up, I get distracted immediately so I stay put, fresh from dreams, and write for at least three hours. Then I get up and spend the afternoons researching and editing.
Q – If you woke up tomorrow with a supernatural power of your choice, what would it be, and why?
A – Time travel. It would save me hours of searching on the internet and take me straight to where my characters are.
Q – It seems that the inspiration for your characters stem from your experiences as a journalist and your travels. Have you ever used someone close to you as inspiration for a character or an experience you had as inspiration for a plot twist?
A – No one close to me but lots of people I met when I was a journalist. I feel as though I have been researching my books for 30 years because when I finally came to write fiction, I had a wonderful cast of characters to draw on.
Q – If we were to interview your mother, what might she say to us if we asked her what you were like as a child?
A – A bit of a bookworm!
Q – What secret talent do you have that others may not know about? (me personally… I can do a cartwheel off of my diving board lol)
A – 100 words a minute shorthand – I use it every day.
Q – What is your favorite thing about meeting fans of your work?
A – Finding out what my books are about… as a famous writer said several hundred years ago: “A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.”
Q – What do you consider to be your BEST life accomplishment?
A – It may still be to come…
Q – As a teacher, I know how important it is to share my love of reading and writing with my students. I have had students come back to me as adults and ask me for book recommendations. When you look back on your childhood, can you think of a teacher that you can still remember because they inspired you to be the reader/writer you are today?
A – My English teacher, Sister Ursula IBVM, who loved books with a passion that could not be denied and taught us why.
Q – Can you give your fans a little hint about what you are working on now and what we can expect from you in the future?
A – I have just delivered the first draft of my third book and am gnawing my fingernails while I wait for the verdict. And, yes, Kate is still there with her foot in the door.
What others are saying about Fiona Barton and her books…
One of the most highly anticipated thrillers of the year—as seen in People, Entertainment Weekly, Time, USA Today, Bustle, Good Housekeeping.com, HelloGiggles, The Boston Globe, PureWow, The Dallas Morning News, and more!
“The Child is a perfect blend of beach read and book club selection. It’s a fascinating and fitting follow-up to [Barton’s] best-selling debut novel, The Widow. . . .[A] page-turning whodunit….A novel that is both fast-paced and thought-provoking, it keeps the reader guessing right to the end.”—USA Today
“Fiona Barton brings back reporter Kate Waters from the best-selling The Widow and delivers another winner with The Child.…A truly engaging tale. Those who enjoyed The Widow will discover that Barton has only gotten better.”—The Associated Press
“A lightning-paced, twisty story with an ending so surprising you might have to read it twice.”—GoodHousekeeping.com
“Multiple narratives mean non-stop action in The Child…Like her fellow novelists, Fiona Barton knows showing is better than telling because it allows for the reader’s perspective…whether the conclusion occasions a shock or an ‘aha!’ doesn’t matter; it’s satisfying due to all the work that’s gone into its discovery.”—NPR.org
The author of the stunning New York Times bestseller The Widow returns with a brand-new novel of twisting psychological suspense.
Book Summary… “The Child”
As an old house is demolished in a gentrifying section of London, a workman discovers human remains, buried for years. For journalist Kate Waters, it’s a story that deserves attention. She cobbles together a piece for her newspaper, but at a loss for answers, she can only pose a question: Who has been found at the building site?
As Kate investigates, she unearths connections to a crime that rocked the city decades earlier: A child was stolen from the maternity ward in a local hospital and was never found. Her heartbroken parents were left devastated by the loss.
But there is more to the story, and Kate is drawn—house by house—into the pasts of the people who once lived in this neighborhood that has given up its greatest mystery. And she soon finds herself the keeper of unexpected secrets that erupt in the lives of three women—and torn between what she can and cannot tell…
An NPR Best Book of the Year
A Bustle Best Thriller Novel of the Year
Two Girls and a Book Obsession 