The Secret Baby Room

by D.D. Johnston

A stunning new psychological thriller. Claire Wilson knows what she saw: on the eighth floor of a derelict tower block, a woman was bottle-feeding a baby. But why would anyone take a baby into a boarded-up tower block? And why are children disappearing? In an area of Manchester plagued by unexplained tragedies, Claire’s only allies are a pagan witch, a wild-child party girl, and a husband with too many secrets. 'Johnston offers us a wonderfully gripping read, but also a compassionate and moving story of people struggling to survive at the margins of a rapidly changing city.' - Crimeculture

285 pages, Paperback

First published June 19, 2015

About the author

D.D. Johnston is a Scottish author, who now lives in Cheltenham, England, where he works as a lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire. His first novel, Peace, Love, & Petrol Bombs (AK Press), was a Sunday Herald Books of the Year for 2011 and has been translated into Spanish as Paz, amor y cócteles molotov.

His second novel, The Deconstruction of Professor Thrub, was a 2013 book of the year in the Morning Star, where it was described as 'determinedly extraordinary.'

His third novel, The Secret Baby Room, is a tense psychological thriller:

"As her own life falls apart, Claire risks everything in her quest. It’s an investigation that leads her not only towards the dark knowledge of past crimes but towards an understanding of the damaged lives of those around her. Johnston offers us a wonderfully gripping read, but also a compassionate and moving story of people struggling to survive at the margins of a rapidly changing city." - Crime Culture

Reviews

[Gill James · Rating 5 out of 5]

D.D. Johnston wrote to my colleague at the University of Salford to ask if he could come and talk to our students. We had a Masters creative writing workshop that seemed to fit well. I was running it that evening. He had a Power Point presentation – but didn’t trust our technology so he showed it as a series of A4 flash cards. It worked. There were also lots of questions from the students. It made for an inspiring class.

I bought the book. None of the students did. It is published by a small press so is a little expensive.

It took me over a year to get round to reading it but when I did I could hardly put it down. It’s unusual for me not to figure out what is happening long before the end. This time I did not know until the very last page how everything was going to turn out. Yet the story progression and the resolution remained convincing.
Part of the appeal must be because it is set in Greater Manchester. As there is a tower block and a river involved, I saw in my mind’s eyes an area very near to the university – in fact just a few yards away from where I held the class. However, it isn’t there because there is a golf course, an old people’s home and a St Michael’s Church involved as well.

This novel has an excellent narrative balance. The characters are totally convincing. They are ordinary folk, too, not white upper middle class. The story moves forward at a pace and we are kept guessing. We are totally gunning for protagonist Claire Wilson.

I suppose Johnston approached us partly because the story is set in Greater Manchester. The story is based on something that happened to him. Oh, and he used to work at a Manchester coach station – just like Dan, Claire’s husband.

Do give it a go.

[Anna Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A paranoia-packed, nail-biting thriller that will have you questioning what is real and what may just be delusion, The Secret Baby Room is a modern-day Rosemary's Baby that kept THIS pregnant reader perched on the edge of her seat. Newly unemployed and freshly-uprooted newlywed, Claire Wilson, has too much time on her hands. Alongside her husband, Dan, she's moved into unfamiliar territory, becoming a new homeowner in what she perceives to be an unwelcoming neighborhood. When she spots a woman holding a baby in an abandoned apartment scheduled for upcoming demolition, Claire becomes obsessed with seeking out the unsafe mother-infant duo. She becomes quite single-minded in her pursuit of the truth, reading danger and conspiracy in everything from vagrants pushing strollers to disturbing graffiti tagged all over town. Is there really danger lurking in the abandoned apartment, or has Claire's recent miscarriage caused her to be a bit sensitive to all things baby?

I'm a mother of a 21 month old, and I'm currently 6 months pregnant, so I'll freely admit that I've got baby on the brain (and on my hip or around my knees and kicking in my stomach) pretty much all of the time. I found this book to be highly entertaining and extremely readable. It had a colorful cast of characters including an abusive rags-to-riches landlord, a mother-earth wiccan woman and her free-spirited, feral children, an oversexualized alcoholic and a fetus-scrawling graffiti artist. It was a good time, to say the least :) While I wouldn't shelf it next to Great Expectations or another piece of high-falluting, fine literature, it was a fun, tense read that is guaranteed to keep you turning those pages! Recently published by Barbican Press, this thriller is now available to those looking to pad their beach bags with a good book. As always, a big thank you should be extended to NetGalley for making this advanced reader copy available :)

[Martin Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel blends a number of genres into its 283 pages and as such the text is brimming with ideas, social comment, satire, compelling plot and many examples of fine writing. Because of this literary hybridity it's maybe tempting, at first, to think that 'The Secret Baby Room' is somehow trying to pack in too many themes and plot developments but by the end (a satisfying and psychologically astute climax), it's clear that the author has been in control of the novel's complexity all along.
There are various 'secret baby rooms' scattered throughout the text - from past to present, actual to psychological - and it's this central trope that accumulates a power that results in a devastating denouement that recalls the equally chilling final scenes in Polanski's 'Chinatown'. These are traces of loss and trauma buried in memories (collective and individual), buildings and wider society. Despite the propulsion of the plot, the sense of grief is often palpable and there's a genuine concern here for mothers and children and how they must deal with the intense hegemony of patriarchy.
This is a Feminist novel then: in Claire's gradual transformation; her burgeoning friendship with the charismatic Lianne; the concern with the various 'performances' of gender; and a general sense of female empowerment that works both at the level of metaphor and plot.
But, crucially, it's funny too - the parody of middle-class hippy banalities, the 'red herring' of supernatural mythologies, heterosexual male prejudice and, even, the problematics of knocking down a high-rise block of flats. Not to mention some extremely beautiful (and, given the urban surroundings, unexpected) nature writing.
So it's a sophisticated blend of psychological thriller, social satire, literary characterization and an examination of how a wide group of people from all sides of British culture manage their lives in a post-industrial landscape.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clare and her husband have recently moved to Manchester with his job, leaving Clare still to job hunt. She realises that she knows no one in Manchester and it might be a lonely place to be. She’s hiding a heartbreak that reveals itself during the book. She decides to introduce herself to the neighbours who turn out to be a quirky set! One side is a white witch and the other is a girl who still parties hard.
One evening she sees a mother holding a baby in the deserted and due to be demolished tower block at the end of their gardens. It haunts her and she worries that they are squatting there and in terrible danger when the tower is detonated. There are also stories about a secret baby room where people have heard the ghost of a baby. Is Claire imagining it all? Is her marriage strong enough to withstand her current behaviour?
She finds it difficult to get anyone to take her seriously and it leads her to come into contact with various other character that add more depth to the story. A great read.
With many thanks to Barbican Press and Net Galley for a prepublication copy of the book to read.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This copy kindly provided by NetGalley on behalf of the publisher

not what I was expecting... took me a while to get into it, and then I'm not sure if I began to read quicker because I needed to know what happened or because I just wanted it finished.

overall it wasn't really a bad story. I liked the concept that if enough people tell you enough times that something is true you will start to believe it even though you know that they're wrong. very small piece of the story, but one that I really enjoyed.

I think I would have liked en epilogue added to this, just to follow up what happened to everyone... did Claire have a baby or adopt? what happened to Lianne? & Neville? felt like a lot happened at the end & it'd be nice just to see it finalised.

[Linda Strong · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a horror story. I don't do horror very well.

Short blurb ... couple moves into new neighborhood and it seems like the place is jinxed .. every woman there has lost a baby or child. And of course, this couple wants to have a baby.

I think I was hoping for a The Hand That Rocks The Cradle vs Rosemary's Baby. And while Rosemary's Baby was okay ... I just could not finish this book.

The cover and title drew me in .... I think anyone who really likes horror would like this one.

My thanks to NetGalley and Publisher for allowing me to read and review.

[Viola · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good summer read. The previous book I’d read by D.D. Johnston was The Deconstruction of Professor Thrub. This is a very different sort of book. I suppose I’d expected at least some of the experimentation, philosophy and trickery that he served with Thrub. But instead The Secret Baby Room is a traditional narrative - and a very satisfying one at that. The Deconstruction of Professor Thrub is the sort of book that makes your mind expand until you get a headache, but The Secret Baby Room is the sort of book you would enjoy reading on the beach or at the airport.

The plot is both simple and complex. Claire has moved to a new home and she sees a woman with a baby in a derelict tower block. Because Claire has suffered a tragedy (it becomes clear what’s happened as you read on) she becomes obsessed with trying to work out what the woman was doing with the baby in this abandoned tower block. The complexity comes from the many possibilities of what could be going on. You even wonder what genre the book will turn out to be as Claire imagines criminal conspiracies, supernatural mysteries, satanic rituals, and much more. There’s also the possibility that Claire’s husband and the local police are right and she has gone a bit mad.

I especially liked how the book is also about the pressures put on women in terms of appearance and expected behaviour, and how this can lead women to dislike themselves and other women. At the start of the novel Claire is really worried about her appearance and she is equally critical of other women. But her self-confidence grows as she progresses with her quest and so does her sense of solidarity with other women.

The first half of the book explores the characters and settings, and although some lesser mysteries are solved along the way, the pace is quite slow because Claire doesn’t really make much progress with her main quest. Although I enjoyed the writing, I found I took many breaks during the first half. But then from the midpoint on I was absolutely hooked.

The book wasn’t quite what I expected, and it’s very different from the other D.D. Johnston book I’ve read, but I’m glad I read The Secret Baby Room and would recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a holiday page turner.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great pace and descriptions.

[Tania Godwin-evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first novel by this author. Whist the main theme of the book can be red at one level there are in face multiple levels of this novel and indeed the characters themselves.

I was interested in the premise of this book yet I found it quite hard to get into. I prefer books that grab me from the get go and don’t release me from their grip until the final word. In contrast, I suppose like any good psychological book, this is slow to boil. But once it gets going it rolls along quite well.

The main theme of the book echoes the personal pain of the female protagonist Claire (to find out that this is you will have to read this novel) which seem to cloud people’s perceptions of her. Claire, a determined and driven woman, is trying to come to terms with her tragedy and the compelling need to make new friends in her new neighbourhood. Yet the reader is constantly at odds with the narrative. Is what Claire sees real or not?

Aside from Claire this novel contains a colourful cast of characters (as far as they go – we never really get their full details), as one would expect on an English street. They include a Wiccan and her rather wayward family; a graffiti artist and an alcoholic with various issues (we never really know about our neighbours in England as we just normally smile at them across the street/garden fence).

In getting to know the neighbours and the onward story the reader is never really sure who is good and who is not. Who can be trusted and who cannot. It could also be a case of if you are told something often enough you start to believe it. As in any British neighbourhood the characters, when you start to get to know them are quirky and understated.

Everything in this new neighbourhood is shadowed by the tower block that is about to be demolished. And therein emerges the basis of this good but predictable psychological thriller, but that seemed to suit this novel. Although this reader enjoyed the English slang (and spellings) this could conceivably put off some American readers, why I am not too sure to be honest – we Brits have to read enough of their novels with incorrect spellings and strange slang! I, a Brit myself, personally loved this and the procedural happenings.

This novel is woman centred novel with enough red herrings and twists to keep the reader hooked and interested until the end. Although this reader would have liked an epilogue just to find out what happened to the Baby of the novel’s title.

The first portion of the book deals with Claire, her relationship with the neighbours and the setting in general. As is typical with some British novels this one was quite slow to get to the boil. It is not a novel one should attempt in one sitting.

As with the women, the novel is multi layered which are all explained in the first part of the novel which makes the pacing slightly slow especially for our American cousins Overall this is a dark, tense emotional thriller with enough red herrings to keep the reader interested but is maybe too intelligent from some American readers.

In short this is a novel of feminism where Claire had to deal with her own transformation from societal norms. It followed her through the friendship of an alcoholic. But it was also a case of if you hear something often enough you tend to believe it. It contrasted what was expected of a woman and how that woman wanted to be viewed. Female empowerment is a great motivator in this novel. All that said, this reader, in particular, is glad that the husband eventually realised what was what and stood by his woman (albeit rather reluctantly).

If you are up for a challenging, thought provoking read this is one for you.

Full Disclosure: I received a free copy from Netgalley for an honest review.

[Kristina Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Secret Baby Room by D. D. Johnston is supposed to be a British psychological thriller. I found it to be a very strange novel. Claire and Dan Wilson have just moved into a new home in Manchester (not far from where Dan grew up). Their home is in the shadow of an apartment building (they call it tower block) that is going to be demolished. Claire lost a baby several months before moving and is still getting over the loss. Claire’s new neighbors are very interesting. Morgana Cox is married with two children. She believes in many causes (some are a little nutty) and Morgana is a Wiccan. Liana Shaw is her other neighbor and the party girl. Liane likes to drink to excess, goes out clubbing, and bring home a boy toy.

One day Claire is looking at her window and sees a woman with blonde hair holding a baby in the apartment building (Sighthill Tower) that is going to be demolished. Unfortunately, no one believes her. Claire then starts thinking something has been happening to children in this neighborhood for many years if not decades (she hears the legend of the White Lady). Claire thinks the local graffiti of a baby with a crucifix staked through its heart is some warning (instead of it just being a messed up teenage). Claire’s husband, Dan is getting fed up with Claire and wants her to get help (Dan is not the most loving or caring husband). When Claire hears a baby in the tower (apartment building), she calls the police again. The local police (who would rather not take action on any crime because it results in paperwork) believe Claire to be a crazy woman. Claire warns the company that is going to blow up the tower. They do a thorough search and find no baby.

Claire is determined to find out what is going on. She interviews people in the local retirement home, takes off after a street person with an empty pram (baby stroller), and keeps sneaking into the tower. Claire heard of a secret baby room in the tower and wants to find it. She thinks it will hold clues. Is someone out to get the children in the area? Is there really a baby hiding in the tower? If so, who does the baby belong to?

You will have to read The Secret Baby Room to find out. The Secret Baby Room is a British novel that contains British slang and spelling. I did not enjoy reading this novel. It seemed more like a crazy woman grasping at straws than a thriller. Overall, The Secret Baby Room was one strange novel. I give The Secret Baby Room 1 out of 5 stars (I really disliked this novel). I do not see how the graffiti, the White Lady, and the cemetery of little children all tied together nor why they were mentioned in the book (really did not relate to story in the end).

I received a complimentary copy of The Secret Baby Room from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The review and opinions expressed are my own.

[Edmund Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Secret Baby Room, by D.D. Johnstone, is a mixture of both thriller and mystery. The novel follows the story of Claire Wilson, a young woman struggling to adapt to her new home in Manchester. Unpacking one morning, she notices a young woman in the window of an abandoned tower block, feeding a baby and from that simple image, her curiosity leads her deeper into the tangled lives of her neighbours and her new neighbourhood, where children disappear.

A quintessential ‘British’ novel, complete with tea-making, Mancunian slang and a wonderfully miserable depiction of a ‘girls night out,’ The Secret Baby Room is engaging and well paced, if slow to start, encouraging the reader to piece together the mystery surrounding Claire and her new neighbours. With enough false-leads and red herrings to keep the sense of mystery right until the closing chapters, this novel presents a traditional narrative in a competent and engaging manner, unflinching in its treatment of dark and somewhat horrific ideas, balanced by a gentle and subtle humour that wends throughout the novel.

The true strength of this novel is found through the main character. Claire is so much more than a protagonist with enough curiosity to push the narrative forwards. She is crafted as a real human being, with body image issues, marital stress, and a confused sense of who she is at 28 years old, with wonderfully ‘English’ sensibilities:

“Everything was enormous and complex, chaotic and unpredictable. But there was no problem that couldn’t be ordered and contained on a white sheet of A4.”

The neighbours that so much of The Secret Baby Room is concerned with are also interesting and engaging with their own stories to tell, from Lianne who “sunbathed topless in her garden and drank cocktails through a straw” to Morgana, a woman who believes in personal empowerment and the spirit of the earth. Though these characters add a great deal to the narrative, without draining the pace or focus, there are times when there can be a slight sense of underdevelopment, especially in Morgana, who in one scene asks is Claire has ever considered hugging a tree; a moment that was perhaps slightly on the nose for a novel usually so engaging through understatement.

However, this does not detract from this novel being an engaging and entertaining read that draws in the reader through plot, character and mystery. When the action picks up towards the last third of the novel, it becomes almost impossible to put down and I would thoroughly recommend it for anyone interested in mystery, suspense, and new British fiction.

With thanks to Barbican Press for providing a review copy of this novel.

[E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Secret Baby Room” by D.D. Johnston is a mystery that centers around Claire Wilson, who has moved to Manchester with her husband and becomes enmeshed in a series of issues with her neighbors. A mysterious graffiti artist is tagging a disconcerting image of a baby, a woman and baby are seen in an ostensibly abandoned building, and a campaign to halt demolition as well as get a telephone mast removed all seem designed to convince the Wilsons that their new neighborhood is not going to be as peaceful and healing an environment as they thought and the question becomes, will their marriage survive all the stresses its experiencing?

This tale is a character study as well as a psychological thriller that has several red herrings and odd twists set in a distinctly British environment. The use of certain phrases and descriptions of procedures are a bit disconcerting to one unfamiliar with the local customs and the multiple threads that are laid down in the first part of the novel are a bit ponderous and slow to engage the reader. It is important to persevere with this story to truly appreciate it, but be forewarned that this is a dark and sometimes pretty horrifying story that evokes strong emotions and has unexpected resolutions.

I had trouble establishing a connection with the characters at first, but I realized that many of them are very multi-layered, just as the story itself is. Claire is a driven and determined woman who has to get past the tragedy in her own life, and the realization that others are dealing with plenty of tragedies of their own serves as a sometimes very uncomfortable wake-up call. There are several crises that are a bit awkward for me, and I wish that there was a little more depth to some of the characters, but once the action picked up toward the middle of the story, it became quite compelling and I was anxious to discover how it was going to be resolved. This is a thought-provoking tale that starts slowly but builds into an attention-getting story that will appeal to those who like very quirky characters, lots of angst and dark atmosphere, and a characteristically British flair for understatement.


A copy of this title was provided to me for review

[JaVone · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Secret Baby Room Claire and her husband Dan move to Manchester In hopes of a new start. However, within a few days of moving there Claire finds something suspicious. Follow Claire and her quirky neighbors on a journey to decide if Claire is losing her mind or if there really is a secret baby room.The only reason I kept reading this novel is because I wanted to know what was going on, so in a sense it was suspenseful. Did it have me on the edge of my seat? No. It seemed that the story line was dragging. There was so much going on at one point that was really not intriguing, at that point I just had to sit the novel down. I didn’t get a sense of mysteriousness or secretiveness that I usually get with suspense books. This novel could have been wrapped up way sooner than it was and then the ending was kind of blah!I give the overall story line a ¾ but because of the dragging and choppy story telling, I rate it a solid 3.Thanks NetGalley and Barbican Press for allowing me the opportunity to preview this novel.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's an odd mix of people living in the close where The Secret baby Room is set - Morgana, the hippie Mother Earth type, with her husband Adrian and their two children Moonchild and Unity, Lianne the twenty something year old single and living the single life good and proper. And then there is the apparently normal couple of Claire and Dan who have moved to Manchester for a fresh start.

I did think Claire had lost the plot with her obsession with a baby in the tower. At points I thought it was all in her head, part of her grieving process after her miscarriage. I felt sorry for Dan; he's trying to settle back to his childhood city with a new job with long hours and all he's getting is ranting about babies from Claire.

The book is marketed as a psychological thriller. For me it was lighter in the scale - I've read some dark psychological thrillers! There is the suspense and intrigue but it didn't mess with my head and emotions as much as some psychological thrillers do.

Many thanks to Barbican Press and Netgalley for giving me this ebook in return for an honest review.

[Mark Gardner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had some difficulty reading The Secret Baby Room. I usually don’t have any problems reading books written in the Queen’s English, but there was so much British slang and some dialog that didn’t seem quite right to my American ear. I used the ‘look up’ function of my kindle a lot, and there were a few words that I had to do Internet searches to find out what it meant.

Another issue I had with the story was I just couldn’t like the protagonist enough to care what happened to her. I’m not sure if it’s an inability to relate, (I’m a middle-aged male with school-aged children) or that I had to continually stop reading to look up unfamiliar words. I found myself cheering when bad things happened to the protagonist.

From a critical view of the story, there were no glaring continuity issues, and the story is completely believable. There was a plot point that wasn’t properly explained, but over all I’m giving this story three stars.

[Felita Daniels · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can't deny that the title of the book in conjunction with the genre is a bit creepy. I did play with blocks like on the cover of this novel. Did you once upon a time?
The writing in this novel is solid, but the tension could have been improved upon. Characters are flawed but well drawn. Many might say they didn't like the husband, but Claire contributed to the lackluster marriage in my opinion too. "Claire couldn't think what colour Dan's eyes were." When a new neighbor says "He's nice." Claire replied "Not if you have to live with him." This is something she says to someone she just met!
So there’s a journey here of Claire trying to get people to believe her that there’s a problem in the neighborhood. Can she convince others? Can she convince her husband and gain his help? I will tell you that I really enjoyed the ending, especially the last sentence.
I was provided a free copy to read and write an honest review.

[plukereads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I attended the book launch of the newest D D Johnson’s book The Secret Baby Room. It was a really interesting evening with the author himself. He talked about what struggles he had met in his life, and how that did not stop him from becoming an author.
During the event D D Johnson guided the audience through a writing process of his new book, and talked about the inspiration behind it. The second part of the talk was advice on how to make story telling more compelling.
The author had very creative ways of explaining how to construct a plot, and how to skip the parts in the story that might drag on. I loved that he was not afraid to be witty and funny about serious matters like his life prior to becoming a writer.
I learned a lot about writing process in general, and how to write effective stories.
I would recommend going to any events that D D Johnson is involved in because he is one of the smartest, and funniest people I have ever met.

[Rebecca If Only I Could Read Faster · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had quite high hopes for this book but in the main the book failed to meet them. The concept is interesting and some of the characters in the book are unique (mainly a neighbour). I found The Secret Baby Room quite hard to get into, I like a book to draw me in quickly and this didn't do that. I felt that it was well written and I did want to know what was happening and whether Claire did see what she thought she saw in the tower block, or whether she was seeing things as many seemed to think, and what that all meant. Although I enjoyed some aspects of this book I think that overall it was disappointing, I can't quite put my finger on why as the story is good and I liked the writing. I think it's just that it failed to draw me in.

I received a copy of The Secret Baby Room from the publishers via Netgalley in return for an honest review.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book for free from the Goodreads giveaways.

I liked the ideas that formed the bases and the twists of the plot. The story kept interesting throughout even though there weren't any surprising twists. The ending to the story was nicely tied up but very predictable. The book itself is very well written. The characters are very likeable.

The book advertises to be a 'psychological thriller' but to me it feels to weak to be one. Although the ideas in the book were good they just needed to be written in a way to provoke that mindful excitement you get from reading such books.

I liked the book on the basis that it was a very pleasant read. It just needed that tension.