An interesting idea

I was immediately drawn to this book because of its interesting starting plot point. Ellen, recently separated and suffering from heartache over her unexplained infertility, is travelling home by train. Kathryn, a stranger to Ellen, sits opposite and after they have a polite exchange, she asks whether Ellen can hold her baby whilst she makes a quick phone call. Ellen is admiring baby Mia, who lies calmly in her arms, when the train pulls up at the next station and Kathryn gets off, leaving Mia behind! Ellen finds a note left in the changing bag saying that nobody can be trusted including the police.

Now the sensible thing for Ellen to do at this point would be to contact the police or social services as soon as possible but instead she decides to take Mia to a cafe, and thus begins a series of completely avoidable unpleasant events. I found it difficult to bond with Ellen as the main character; she is a complete liability and makes terrible decisions on the back of bad ones.

I was compelled to read on because I really did want to know the answer to the mystery - and it was a well thought out and clever idea. The book is well written and easy to read. I enjoyed reading the first half particularly but, having guessed the most probable approximate ending well before the end, I lost steam towards the final pages.