"Welcome to a moving and compassionate first novel by Ros]Franey, Cry Baby. The subject is baby-battering. The book is short. The insights are astute. It has the stamp of real talent and augurs well for the future success of a writer who has a genuine feel for her craft." Peter Tinniswood in The Times "It is a moving book that seriously questions the pressures of motherhood and whether every woman should feel 'naturally' maternal. Like a modern Raskolnikov, Lisa's actions are frenzied, despicable but identifiable-with. Franey writes with a piercing insight into human nature which is astounding for a first novel." Time Out "Suspense and foreboding move alongside the chief players in this auspicious novelistic debut by a British writer. Franey deftly engages the reader's emotions as she spins this disturbing tale." Publishers Weekly "It is fortunate for those perpetrators of child abuse that a novelist has at last managed to highlight their trauma in an imaginative and sympathetic light. The cold, stark and unpleasant facts of child abuse usually come to us from newspapers and the real skill of Cry Baby is the way the novel explains all the complications which force a person into abusing their own child." Social Work Today