Kit Reed’s THE BABY MERCHANT is a near-future thriller depicting a time when it is increasingly difficult for women to conceive and, as a result, adopt. Enter Tom Starbird, the titular solution who takes baby-hungry clients and charges a lot of money to get them a toddler … by stealing one.
The book follows three stories that eventually become intertwined, with Tom’s as the primary focus. Though essentially a high-class kidnapper, he feels like he’s performing a public service, swiping only the babies he has tracked and believes are unwanted. For example, he may take a baby born to a mother who already has too many other children, leaving this latest starved for attention, so he genuinely feels like he’s doing them a favor.
The second story concerns a college student who gets knocked up from a one-night stand. Coming from wealth, she goes to a prestigious maternity home where she can birth the baby in privacy and pick adoptive parents with whom it may live. She can’t make a decision on a family, but knows she doesn’t want to raise the child. She also hasn’t told the baby’s father, but he inexplicably shows up at the home. Meanwhile, the third story follows “the conscious of Boston,” a popular investigative TV journalist named Zorn. Married to a high-powered lawyer in her 40s who can’t get pregnant, Zorn finds out about Starbird through a tip, but Tom has decided his most recent case was his final one – until Zorn threatens him with blackmail, that is.
Though it belongs squarely in the genre, THE BABY MERCHANT does not read like science fiction, and I was surprised at its fast pacing, even with three initally separate narratives to keep track of. Even though it’s easy to hate Tom for what he does, you almost feel sympathy toward him because he truly believes he’s doing the right things, placing babies into homes where they’ll be cherished, even if he does collect a big paycheck for doing so. Reed’s novel is well-written, and the conclusion is satisfying in all its threads. With the current debate about the sticky ethics of cloning and genetic manipulation, THE BABY MERCHANT is well-timed, as well as thought-provoking in regards to the status of children in our lives and what desperation can do to us. Recommended for those who like intelligent speculative fiction with an element of mystery. –Malena Lott
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