3A

Kim couldn’t see a connection between the two victims, could you?

It was the way they were stabbed that made the connection between the victims. And they were both having their kitchen remodeled.

I think they were both involved in the care system.

For me the connection is the care system, and children that are cases for social care. Deanna worked high up in social care, and Maxine was in the care system and adopted.

>4 Andrew-theQM: Can you show me where it said that Maxine came from the care center? I thought I read that Geraldine went to hospital to have the baby and gave her up to Mrs. Wakeman to adopt.

>5 EadieB: It says Maxine was given up for adoption, and in chapter 33 it says ‘we adopted Maxine when she was 7 months old’, so from this I assumed she must have been in the care system before being adopted for the first few months of her life.

In chapter 39 second page it talks about commonality between victims and the paragraph finishes with Kim could not think of even one that would link Deanna Brightman to Maxine Wakeman.
I did see that Maxine was 7 months adopted but she could have been adopted out of Geraldine’s house or do you have to adopt thru an agency in the UK?

>7 EadieB: Usually my understanding is in the U.K. if parent give children up for adoption, social care will take children into the care system and will seek to find parents for them using agencies. This can take a long time whilst all the checks are done and suitable adoptive parents are found. Adoption agencies are involved to find parents and just looking online it says ‘ The adoption approval process normally takes around 6 months. You will then be matched with a child for adoption.’ Although I am far from an expert on this so could be wrong.

I got the impression that the baby was given up for adoption at birth but again could be wrong about this.

I was surprised when Kim said she couldn’t see any link.

>8 Andrew-theQM: Thanks! Just couldn’t see the link either.

Just found this for the U.K. >7 EadieB:

‘ When your baby is born, they'll be placed in the care of a temporary foster carer, or the new parents if they have been chosen.’

‘After 6 weeks
You can give your final consent. Someone will explain the full process before to make sure you understand what the adoption will involve.’

‘ After 10 weeks
The new parents can apply for an adoption order which gives them full rights over your child. The new parents will be assessed, and if everyone is happy this will be finalised.’

>9 EadieB: Made me question whether the baby was given up for adoption at birth or at 7 months. Later tonight I’m going to try and read these sections again and see if it says.

>10 Andrew-theQM: That was interesting! Thanks!

>12 EadieB: Amazing what we chat about and find out about during group reads, and how some things may be different in different countries.

>13 Andrew-theQM: Well, I really don’t know about the adoption process in the US either. I’ll have to check it out.

Just to add my two penn’orth: I’d assumed if the birth mother had been in the limelight (or with ambitions to be), she’d have handed the child over straight after birth, not allowed people to know she had a child. There’d have been a terrible stigma attached to giving her baby away after 7 months, even more so than giving it up at birth, and not something a celebrity could have kept quiet.

>1 Andrew-theQM: Yes, I saw a connection between Deanna’s job in Children’s Services and a baby up for adoption. (At first I’d assumed the link was due to Maxine’s drug addiction and that she had, therefore, more than likely been the through the care system. Just shows you shouldn’t always make assumptions! ☺️)

What an interesting discussion thrown up by a tiny moment in the story. Thanks to everyone for making me think more deeply about these possible connections.

I also though there was a connection through Deanna’s work in social services. I was surprised Kim didn’t consider there might be a connection…but then decided Kim wasn’t think as clearly as usual due to Alex’s re-appearance in her life.

>18 bluebird_: It seemed pretty obvious to me.