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Emma's Baby
Iemand heeft je baby gestolen.
De politie wil niet luisteren
Wat zou jij doen?
Emma, een alleenstaande moeder, woont met haar dertien maanden oude zoontje Ritchie in Londen. Op een regenachtige zondagavond reist Emma met de ondergrondse terug naar huis. Nadat ze Ritchie in de trein heeft getild, draait ze zich om naar haar boodschappen. Plotseling sluiten de deuren. Emma rent schreeuwend langs het perron maar niemand reageert op haar hulpgeroep.
In de trein lijkt een vrouw 'volgende halte' te roepen. Tegen de tijd dat Emma daar in dolle paniek arriveert, zit de vrouw met Ritchie op schoot. Alles lijkt weer in orde. Tot de vrouw voorstelt een kopje koffie te gaan drinken om vervolgens spoorloos te verdwijnen – met Ritchie in haar armen.
Emma kan niets bewijzen. De politie gelooft haar niet. Hoe kan zij hun aan het verstand brengen dat haar zoontje is ontvoerd?
De politie wil niet luisteren
Wat zou jij doen?
Emma, een alleenstaande moeder, woont met haar dertien maanden oude zoontje Ritchie in Londen. Op een regenachtige zondagavond reist Emma met de ondergrondse terug naar huis. Nadat ze Ritchie in de trein heeft getild, draait ze zich om naar haar boodschappen. Plotseling sluiten de deuren. Emma rent schreeuwend langs het perron maar niemand reageert op haar hulpgeroep.
In de trein lijkt een vrouw 'volgende halte' te roepen. Tegen de tijd dat Emma daar in dolle paniek arriveert, zit de vrouw met Ritchie op schoot. Alles lijkt weer in orde. Tot de vrouw voorstelt een kopje koffie te gaan drinken om vervolgens spoorloos te verdwijnen – met Ritchie in haar armen.
Emma kan niets bewijzen. De politie gelooft haar niet. Hoe kan zij hun aan het verstand brengen dat haar zoontje is ontvoerd?
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
49 people are currently reading
1634 people want to read
About the author
Abbie Taylor
13 books26 followersAbbie Taylor is a doctor in her thirties. She was born in Ireland and lives between Dublin and London. Emma's Baby is her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 214 reviews
July 19, 2014
3.5 stars: I am on the fence about whether this novel deserves a 4 star or a 3 star. It’s a beach read in that it’s very readable. It is suspenseful, and very gripping in parts. Some of the book seemed a bit implausible, but that’s fiction!
An overwhelmed single mother takes her baby for a walk. She uses the train to get home. She’s a new mother, so she’s a bit clumsy along with being overwhelmed. As she tries to get her child and herself on the train, the doors close on her after she gets the child and stroller in (she’s still working on getting in the rest of the baby paraphernalia). Off the train goes with the baby and without her, and off goes the suspenseful novel. Unless you are a parent, you most likely won’t get the sick-to-your-stomach desperate feeling of having your baby take off without you.
As she deals with the authorities, she realizes that she will need to find her baby herself. The book is set up with “Day One……Day Nineteen” etc. Emma, the mother, spends her idle time self-flagellating herself (as all mothers do) about all her parenting faults and what she did wrong.
It’s not quiet a four star book, but it’s close.
An overwhelmed single mother takes her baby for a walk. She uses the train to get home. She’s a new mother, so she’s a bit clumsy along with being overwhelmed. As she tries to get her child and herself on the train, the doors close on her after she gets the child and stroller in (she’s still working on getting in the rest of the baby paraphernalia). Off the train goes with the baby and without her, and off goes the suspenseful novel. Unless you are a parent, you most likely won’t get the sick-to-your-stomach desperate feeling of having your baby take off without you.
As she deals with the authorities, she realizes that she will need to find her baby herself. The book is set up with “Day One……Day Nineteen” etc. Emma, the mother, spends her idle time self-flagellating herself (as all mothers do) about all her parenting faults and what she did wrong.
It’s not quiet a four star book, but it’s close.
March 21, 2021
Emma's baby goes missing on the train or rather kidnapped but the police don't belive her and the story goes from there. It was pretty intense in parts and I got really hooked in figuring out what would happen in the end. But I didn't find the overall story or the ending that spectacular. I can see why people like it but it didn't go where I wanted it to
March 1, 2024
This is one of those books I just couldn't get on board with the main character for me was just annoying and a bit thick to be quite honest! This book took twists and turns in hopes to be suspenseful but I really wasn't impressed I never don't finish a book but this is one I wish I hadn't bothered with.
I found myself skimming through some chapters so it only took me 2 days to get through so I haven't wasted too much time! but WOW it's a BIG no from me! This is going into the charity pile - there's no way I want to re-read this!
I found myself skimming through some chapters so it only took me 2 days to get through so I haven't wasted too much time! but WOW it's a BIG no from me! This is going into the charity pile - there's no way I want to re-read this!
August 28, 2017
The story of a young mother's child going missing after she accidentally loses him on the tube, sounds like a true horror. Emma, the mother in question, is frantic after her baby, Richie, is taken. Worse, the police doubt her innocence, and she feels she has few allies in her search for her child.
Emma's story immediately had my attention, and though she wasn't necessarily the most likeable character, one could not help but feel for her stuck in this terrible situation. The story is well written, and unfolds nicely, though at times, the pacing slows a bit with too many unnecessary details, but all in all, a gripping psychological thriller.
THE STRANGER ON THE TRAIN could definitely appeal to fans of Elizabeth Haynes, Sabine Durrant, Louise Millar or Samantha Hayes. This was my first book by Abbie Taylor, but I look forward to looking up her others.
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
Emma's story immediately had my attention, and though she wasn't necessarily the most likeable character, one could not help but feel for her stuck in this terrible situation. The story is well written, and unfolds nicely, though at times, the pacing slows a bit with too many unnecessary details, but all in all, a gripping psychological thriller.
THE STRANGER ON THE TRAIN could definitely appeal to fans of Elizabeth Haynes, Sabine Durrant, Louise Millar or Samantha Hayes. This was my first book by Abbie Taylor, but I look forward to looking up her others.
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
July 9, 2014
At first I thought Emma was a dimwit, seriously how many times did she leave her baby with a strangewoman? But as the story went on I began to feel compassion for her, and with all my medical expertise (haha) I diagnosed her with post partum depression. I enjoyed this book, at times it was a bit far fetched but I didn't care.
June 3, 2014
2.5* really. Read/skimmed it in one sitting. I didn't really like the main character, Emma, which was a bit of a problem. I know she was meant to be depressed (understandably) about her life as a single mother, but she was no more likeable in the flashbacks to her childhood and single days. I found the plot strangely unsuspenseful and the scenes where she and Rafe kept popping over to France totally unbelievable. Rafe was a bit thin on the personality front (apart from being "a nice guy") and oddly believed Emma's story, even after the DNA test had seemingly disproved it. I'm not sure what setting part of the story in France added to anything.
June 28, 2025
actually, i read it when i was younger, and it was one of my favourites!! i have to reread it to have an objective opinion and see if it still deserves my five stars :3
August 26, 2010
Emma was a happy, carefree young woman with a degree, a job she didn’t much care about but a job nonetheless, friends, a nice flat and a social life. She’s travelled, spending a year in Sydney after finishing University, been for a holiday to Europe with her friends from University. All this changes when she finds out that she’s pregnant. Having been in denial for several months, she’s five months gone before she realises that she’d better start dealing with it. The father has left her, gone back to his ex-girlfriend and her flatmate wants to move in with her boyfriend. Their lease is up in one month and Emma must find somewhere to live.
We find all this out in flashback as the book starts with Emma and her 13 month old son heading home after a day out. Ritchie is tired and restless and wants to hop out of his buggy (pram/stroller/pusher/etc) and walk for a while. He’s wearing a little harness so Emma thinks nothing of lifting him out and standing him on the train platform with her as it pulls into the station. She helps Richie onto the train before attending to getting the buggy and herself on when the doors close on her. She is left holding Ritchie’s leash – he standing inside the train, her on the platform. As the train begins to move, she begins to run after it, saved from being pulled down after it by a thoughtful gesture from a bystander, tackling her to the ground and yanking her out of harms way before the train can rip her off the platform and down underneath it. Desperately Emma gets the next train to the next stop where a kindly looking older woman (who was on the previous train in the same carriage as Ritchie) is waiting with him. She is so relieved to have him back, so thankful, that she can barely speak. The woman takes her for coffee, surreptitiously taking control of everything. Encouraging Emma to go and wash her face from where she was hurt being tackled to the ground, Emma does so. When she returns, the woman – and Ritchie – are gone.
From there Emma is catapulted into a nightmare. The police are called and are at first, skeptical if she is even the mother of a child. When it is established that she has a son, they are less inclined to believe that some snatched him and more likely to believe that she has harmed him herself. Only Rafe Townsend, the young man who tackled her to the ground at the platform, believes her. He calls to return her bag, which she left behind with him when she caught the next train and asks if there’s anything he can do. He’s a former police officer and he lends her his assistance and more importantly, some support.
Support is something that Emma sorely lacks. She is 100% doing this alone. She has no family, her friends have drifted away, caught up in their own lives and not interested in hers now, she had to leave her job, she lives alone with Ritchie in council-type housing. She sees no one, does nothing except spend her days with Ritchie. Although he wasn’t a particularly difficult baby, she is slowly being worn down by the monotony of it all, the routine, the sheer mindlessness. She is a woman who is basically, crying out for help and doesn’t receive it. She tells her GP that she has frustration and anger and pent up aggression and that she has thought it might be possible that she would harm Ritchie. Her GP does absolutely stuff-all about this until the police come knocking for background information on Emma and Ritchie’s medical records, and then she tells them. Instead of helping her get some support and possibly some medical assistance, (all her GP does leave a note for a social worker but the social worker is on leave at the time, something the GP doesn’t chase up). So her cries for help go completely unanswered and even though she doesn’t actually do anything to harm Ritchie, all this does is make the police think she’s completely out of her tree and has probably killed her kid and stashed him somewhere.
Abbie Taylor did a brilliant job not only describing that but making you feel it. And the way she wrote Emma’s grief when Ritchie is taken, her guilt at having felt like she has failed him as his mother, her despair is real and poignant without verging into overdone. The frustration when she isn’t believed. There are a few incidents in the book where you have to suspend disbelief and just go with it in the name of the story, but overall it’s a pretty good novel. What makes it is just how well Taylor nailed that description of a lonely single mother.
We find all this out in flashback as the book starts with Emma and her 13 month old son heading home after a day out. Ritchie is tired and restless and wants to hop out of his buggy (pram/stroller/pusher/etc) and walk for a while. He’s wearing a little harness so Emma thinks nothing of lifting him out and standing him on the train platform with her as it pulls into the station. She helps Richie onto the train before attending to getting the buggy and herself on when the doors close on her. She is left holding Ritchie’s leash – he standing inside the train, her on the platform. As the train begins to move, she begins to run after it, saved from being pulled down after it by a thoughtful gesture from a bystander, tackling her to the ground and yanking her out of harms way before the train can rip her off the platform and down underneath it. Desperately Emma gets the next train to the next stop where a kindly looking older woman (who was on the previous train in the same carriage as Ritchie) is waiting with him. She is so relieved to have him back, so thankful, that she can barely speak. The woman takes her for coffee, surreptitiously taking control of everything. Encouraging Emma to go and wash her face from where she was hurt being tackled to the ground, Emma does so. When she returns, the woman – and Ritchie – are gone.
From there Emma is catapulted into a nightmare. The police are called and are at first, skeptical if she is even the mother of a child. When it is established that she has a son, they are less inclined to believe that some snatched him and more likely to believe that she has harmed him herself. Only Rafe Townsend, the young man who tackled her to the ground at the platform, believes her. He calls to return her bag, which she left behind with him when she caught the next train and asks if there’s anything he can do. He’s a former police officer and he lends her his assistance and more importantly, some support.
Support is something that Emma sorely lacks. She is 100% doing this alone. She has no family, her friends have drifted away, caught up in their own lives and not interested in hers now, she had to leave her job, she lives alone with Ritchie in council-type housing. She sees no one, does nothing except spend her days with Ritchie. Although he wasn’t a particularly difficult baby, she is slowly being worn down by the monotony of it all, the routine, the sheer mindlessness. She is a woman who is basically, crying out for help and doesn’t receive it. She tells her GP that she has frustration and anger and pent up aggression and that she has thought it might be possible that she would harm Ritchie. Her GP does absolutely stuff-all about this until the police come knocking for background information on Emma and Ritchie’s medical records, and then she tells them. Instead of helping her get some support and possibly some medical assistance, (all her GP does leave a note for a social worker but the social worker is on leave at the time, something the GP doesn’t chase up). So her cries for help go completely unanswered and even though she doesn’t actually do anything to harm Ritchie, all this does is make the police think she’s completely out of her tree and has probably killed her kid and stashed him somewhere.
Abbie Taylor did a brilliant job not only describing that but making you feel it. And the way she wrote Emma’s grief when Ritchie is taken, her guilt at having felt like she has failed him as his mother, her despair is real and poignant without verging into overdone. The frustration when she isn’t believed. There are a few incidents in the book where you have to suspend disbelief and just go with it in the name of the story, but overall it’s a pretty good novel. What makes it is just how well Taylor nailed that description of a lonely single mother.
September 30, 2017
I stumbled across this book and was intrigued by the description. I dove in and ended up reading it in one sitting unable to put it down! It is easy to see something like this happening in real life which made it so good. I really connected with Emma and felt deeply everything she was feeling desperately trying to find her son. I enjoyed seeing the connection between Emma and Rafe. And the idea of how easy it is to find yourself alone in the world suddenly with no one to turn to when crisis strikes really hit me hard. Definitely a 5 star read!
July 28, 2018
It's the first time I've read Abbie Taylor's book. It's really good. The book is about a single mom who loses his son and the measures she took to get to get the son back. She never gives up. The turmoil and feelings she goes through is very well written.
June 25, 2017
It has been at least 2 years ( or slightly less.. ) since I read The Stranger on the Train; so it's easy to say the bits I remember are very little. However, I remember the anxiousness I felt when Emma realized she had forgotten her son on the Train. From the start to the last page, I have devoured every single page. The nightmare a mother must face when trying to find her missing child, and knowing the police barely believe in her story. All in all, it was a suspense filled and nerve wracking story that got me to bite my lip in anticipation more than once.
July 9, 2010
I became so absorbed with Emma, the lead character's life that eventually the book became two stories for me. One about the abduction of her toddler son Ritchie (and the mystery of who and why he was taken) and the other half about Emma's hopeless and desperate situation of being an unloved, lonely, depressed, single young mother, who is living in London and on the dole. However, Emma's life didn't start out this way. In flash backs, we learn of a young woman who is right out of university, with a promising future. That is until Emma meets the man that eventually becomes the baby's father, Oliver. That is when her life seemed to spiral out of control and into despair. [return:][return:]The author relates Emma's story in a very compassionate way, and you have much empathy for this young woman. Which makes me think that the author understands something about bringing up a baby alone. If not, then this splendid author has done her research well. The only compassion, understanding, and help seemed to come from the second lead character, Rafe, who Emma runs into the day her son goes missing on the train. Rafe believes her at the time when the police have their suspicions after discovering that Emma has told her doctor in confidence some dark, disturbing, and troubling thoughts about her son and her helpless circumstances previously to her son's disappearance. Rafe sees how Emma has been terribly wronged and not just by the events of the kidnapping but by the system itself. He becomes Emma's only hope in finding her son. [return:][return:]I thought I had the book figured out in the middle but it didn't faze me one bit. I wanted to keep reading because there were so many loose and possible ends (why the abduction, Emma's relationship to Rafe, etc...). Yet, I was somewhat surprised by the ending. The story actually brought a few tears to my eyes and a few smiles too. This is the sort of book you need to take a deep breath before diving into another book by a different author. The story and the characters were very believable and human to me. Too often crime novels come off as really bad TV dramas with leading characters who could win the too stupid to live award, but not this book.[return:] [return:]I also wanted to add that I loved how the author reveals Emma's emotions without being too overly dramatic or exhausting. The reader understands Emma's guilt and deep love for her son Ritchie, but also we can grasp her frustrations and desperation too without the character going too far over the top. This truly is a wonderful book and one that I didn't wish to see an end to. I do hope the author will give us more wonderful stories. I will certainly be first in line to buy up anything else she writes in the future. In fact, it was very hard for me to believe this is the author's first book. I wondered while reading it, if perhaps Abbie Taylor might be a pseudonym for a more well established author, but my researched has turned nothing up. For that reason, I have to assume this is Abbie Taylor's first published work and what a great piece it is.
August 1, 2014
An interesting look at the human psyche, postpartum depression and going it alone as a parent. No one believes Emma, a disheveled, fraught, increasingly depressive young mother of a 13 month old, when she says a woman kidnapped her child right out from under her. Readers will follow Emma through fear and self doubt as the author paints a picture of life raising a baby with absolutely no one to lean on. I liked the author's treatment of Emma being discounted by authority - police and her doctor - because of her postpartum depression. Instead of helping, they categorize her and then hinder her efforts to find her child, which is alarming and disheartening. I found this to be a satisfying read and wanted Emma to come through it in the end.
September 12, 2014
One of few books that I started and did not finish. One wants to feel bad for a mother who has "lost" her child - but just couldn't get there ....
May 26, 2017
I loved this book it tugged at the heart strings a lot with me. When Emma is out with her son and the worst thing happens to her as she's getting on a train with him. Luckily there was a woman on train and took care of him till emma arrived at the next platform. Unbeknown to emma of the tragedy the woman went throu herself and is on planning to do with Emma's baby.
Even a kind stranger called rafe who stopped emma going under the train. Did everything he could to find Ritchie even travelled across the world to track him. Even thou he didn't know emma and Ritchie I mean would you let a complete stranger help you find your child if he was lost or kidnapped. And even was going to cancel his trip round the world to stay with emma while she recovered from the cut Ritchie abductors gived her. But he went and then comes back to visit. But think him being an ex police officer helped emma more as he knew how the system works and had a few friends who gived him tip offs
I felt the author did brilliantly with the story and got everything covered. Think the ending was perfect for this story and I can't wait to read more off Abbie Taylor's.
Not more I can say about this book as it was that good it stays with you and tugs at your heart strings.
It was like reading bits of my life with how she felt being a single mum and struggling to come to turns with bringing a child up on her own.
Even a kind stranger called rafe who stopped emma going under the train. Did everything he could to find Ritchie even travelled across the world to track him. Even thou he didn't know emma and Ritchie I mean would you let a complete stranger help you find your child if he was lost or kidnapped. And even was going to cancel his trip round the world to stay with emma while she recovered from the cut Ritchie abductors gived her. But he went and then comes back to visit. But think him being an ex police officer helped emma more as he knew how the system works and had a few friends who gived him tip offs
I felt the author did brilliantly with the story and got everything covered. Think the ending was perfect for this story and I can't wait to read more off Abbie Taylor's.
Not more I can say about this book as it was that good it stays with you and tugs at your heart strings.
It was like reading bits of my life with how she felt being a single mum and struggling to come to turns with bringing a child up on her own.
June 15, 2024
•••The Stranger on the Train by Abbie Taylor // 3.5 out of 5 stars•••
While a lot of things in the book seem implausible, I think the main plot point is based around a very valid fear for parents, which may make this book more nerve-wracking and suspenseful for those with children. Emma, the main character, is very naive and foolish at the beginning of the novel, but as the book goes on, she becomes more sympathetic and grows on you a little bit. But, man! Some of the choices she makes are infuriating. Also, every doctor in this book is just about useless, which was so frustrating. I am by no means a doctor, but even I knew the depths of unprofessionalism they reached and could spot the psychological issues of the characters from a mile away. Aside from the frustrating characters, the book is a fast-paced read with some anticipated twists that are expected but captivating nonetheless.
While a lot of things in the book seem implausible, I think the main plot point is based around a very valid fear for parents, which may make this book more nerve-wracking and suspenseful for those with children. Emma, the main character, is very naive and foolish at the beginning of the novel, but as the book goes on, she becomes more sympathetic and grows on you a little bit. But, man! Some of the choices she makes are infuriating. Also, every doctor in this book is just about useless, which was so frustrating. I am by no means a doctor, but even I knew the depths of unprofessionalism they reached and could spot the psychological issues of the characters from a mile away. Aside from the frustrating characters, the book is a fast-paced read with some anticipated twists that are expected but captivating nonetheless.
July 27, 2019
A great drama suspense that I couldn’t put down. A little unbelievable in places but then that’s what makes a good story! As a parent you can totally relate to the story which makes it more suspenseful.
December 19, 2017
asinine.
May 6, 2019
Naive, langweilige und unsympathische Person. Dazu kommt noch, dass die Geschichte unglaubwürdig und vorausschauend ist.
January 10, 2022
Muito bom!!
Conseguiu manter o meu interesse desde o início até ao fim!
Conseguiu manter o meu interesse desde o início até ao fim!
October 24, 2023
3.5 rounded down. Great suspense and overall story but I feel like it could have done more. The ending was a bit anticlimactic for me and could have used a major plot twist.
September 29, 2017
A really good, fast paced book. Every parents nightmare, I couldn't put it down.
August 19, 2019
The Stranger on the Train (also published under the title Emma's Baby) shows how just one moment of distraction can change someone’s life forever. Tired, lonely and isolated, Emma places her son’s stroller on a train and the doors close before Emma herself can board the train and finds him at the next station in the care of a sympathetic older woman. Before Emma realises what is happening, her son has disappeared, and equally distressing, no one believes her.
Strangely, the police are quite unsympathetic towards Emma – firstly not believing that she even has a child, despite the verification (and damnation) of her local GP, but even when it is confirmed that Emma has a child, despite their opinion, they neither invesitgate Emma herself nor launch the type of missing child appeal that is usual for the UK. From this perspective I was slightly disappointed in The Stranger on the Train – I could understand why perhaps they didn’t believe Emma’s story about the kidnapping, but then why not question her further about her sons disappearance?
As Emma’s isolation became apparent, I swung between sympathy for her lack of family and friends and frustration at her for not doing something to help herself. Perhaps I was being harsh to judge, but I wanted her to at least attempt to make her own life more bearable, and to try and work with people to break her isolation.
Although I enjoyed the plot itself, I did find it quite unrealistic, and the police procedures were so unbelivably sloppy and frustrating that they distracted me from the essence of the story about a young woman who finds herself in a horrible situation with no one to turn to.
Strangely, the police are quite unsympathetic towards Emma – firstly not believing that she even has a child, despite the verification (and damnation) of her local GP, but even when it is confirmed that Emma has a child, despite their opinion, they neither invesitgate Emma herself nor launch the type of missing child appeal that is usual for the UK. From this perspective I was slightly disappointed in The Stranger on the Train – I could understand why perhaps they didn’t believe Emma’s story about the kidnapping, but then why not question her further about her sons disappearance?
As Emma’s isolation became apparent, I swung between sympathy for her lack of family and friends and frustration at her for not doing something to help herself. Perhaps I was being harsh to judge, but I wanted her to at least attempt to make her own life more bearable, and to try and work with people to break her isolation.
Although I enjoyed the plot itself, I did find it quite unrealistic, and the police procedures were so unbelivably sloppy and frustrating that they distracted me from the essence of the story about a young woman who finds herself in a horrible situation with no one to turn to.
July 20, 2016
Emma's Baby is Abbie Taylor's very first novel. I was glued to it from page one. It is so full of tension that I am looking forward to Abbie Taylor's second novel. The story starts of Sunday 17th September Emma took her baby son Ritchie out of the day to Spitalfields market. Emma heads of back home on the blue and red london underground circle line. with the train approaching Emma lifts Ritchie out of his buggy and steered him on to the empty carriage holding on to his harness. the door closes and she is still gripping Ritchie's harness. Emma pressed the open button but nothing happened. Pointing to a lady on the train shouting my baby. A lady mouths to Emma next stop. Emma makes her way to the next stop. When Emma arrives at the next stop Emma is pleased to see that the lady Antonia has Ritchie for Emma. Antonia takes Emma and Ritchie to a cafe but when Emma goes to the toilet Antonia takes off with baby Ritchie. Emma ends up in hospital telling the police that a lady has taken her son but the police do not believe her and ask Emma are you sure that the child didn't belong to the other woman. Can Emma get the police to listen to her?. I highly recommend Emma's Baby. I hope that many readers will enjoy reading Emma's Baby as much as I have.
May 12, 2019
DNF 23%
Within minutes the first thing I’m struck by is who the hell lets their 13 month old child walk onto a train! Particularly on hands and knees but seriously! No. I can’t imagine anyone daft enough to do that.
Also, getting a stranger to provide hands-on help, leaving your child (that you just lost!) alone with said stranger and not immediately asking basic questions... this is just not believable. I can see the policeman’s POV immediately: Emma is naive and, I’m sorry, a bit bloody thick.
Anyway...
I don’t like Lindsay. She just doesn’t seem to have the right characteristics for a family liaison officer. Too literal and cheery.
Eventually I lost interest because I couldn’t connect with the characters.
Within minutes the first thing I’m struck by is who the hell lets their 13 month old child walk onto a train! Particularly on hands and knees but seriously! No. I can’t imagine anyone daft enough to do that.
Also, getting a stranger to provide hands-on help, leaving your child (that you just lost!) alone with said stranger and not immediately asking basic questions... this is just not believable. I can see the policeman’s POV immediately: Emma is naive and, I’m sorry, a bit bloody thick.
Anyway...
I don’t like Lindsay. She just doesn’t seem to have the right characteristics for a family liaison officer. Too literal and cheery.
Eventually I lost interest because I couldn’t connect with the characters.
August 7, 2016
What a terrific thriller! From the very first page I was totally hooked. Not only is the story line gripping, the underlying themes presented are very compelling. The character development is masterful. You really feel for Emma and are swept into her psychological state, as well as what is happening. Great writing too. A must-read for anyone who loves thrillers (which I am beginning to appreciate) and for anyone who wants to lose themselves in a story for a few days. I read this 337 page book in two sittings because I simply couldn't put it down and had to know what was coming next. Bravo for Abbie Taylor's first book! Can't wait to see what she writes next.
June 14, 2014
Possibly 2.5 stars.
I liked the story, but felt that the character development and part of the storyline development was poorly constructed. By no means was this story horrible, but somewhat amateurish. There were also aspects to the story that I thought developed enough and twists that weren't developed enough. On that note, Atria identifies this author is a debut author, so it should be interesting to see how her writing story matures. Goodreads has numerous books published by this author. Each book is fairly low rated, so it should be interesting to see which is correct.
I liked the story, but felt that the character development and part of the storyline development was poorly constructed. By no means was this story horrible, but somewhat amateurish. There were also aspects to the story that I thought developed enough and twists that weren't developed enough. On that note, Atria identifies this author is a debut author, so it should be interesting to see how her writing story matures. Goodreads has numerous books published by this author. Each book is fairly low rated, so it should be interesting to see which is correct.
September 16, 2014
For the most part I enjoyed this one. I wish the conclusion had been more interesting; I expected this to be more of a mystery suspense novel, but really it was just a suspense novel as there turned out to be very little in the way of plot twists or revelations. I will say that Taylor nailed the mix of guilt, love, frustration, and loneliness that sometimes accompanies motherhood (obviously all taken to an extreme in this book) - there were passages that were difficult to read because she nailed it a little too well!
October 3, 2015
This was an excellent book that grabbed my interest on page 1. It is about a young single mother whose child gets trapped on a train in England, while she is stuck on the platform. A woman on the train promises to meet her with her son at the next station. Appearing to be a really nice lady, everything is fine until Emma has to go to the ladies room, and when she comes back the lady has disappeared with little Ritchie. From then on it was hard to put the book down.
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