Authorpreneur Dashboard – Tannis Laidlaw
Bye Baby Bunting
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
This award-winning book is about nineteen year-old university student Jemma Howell who is pressured (this is 1963) into giving up her newborn daughter for adoption to her boyfriend’s parents after his untimely death. Jemma obsesses about the baby and, taking advantage of a split-second opportunity, kidnaps her own child. But how long can Jemma possibly keep her baby with every police officer in the country on the lookout? PC Tim Finlay relentlessly chases every lead, including repeatedly interviewing Jemma, but secretly believes the child is long dead. Jemma willingly broke one of society’s most sacred laws to be reunited with her beloved daughter, but to keep her, what lies is she willing to tell and what further laws is she prepared to break? BYE BABY BUNTING is an emotional and gripping story about the agony of adopting out, the joys of motherhood, the power of authorities to impose what they believe is best and the moral dilemmas of all parties involved.
Book Bubbles from Bye Baby Bunting
The Power of Mother Love
My main character in BYE BABY BUNTING felt alone in the world. She couldn’t tell her mother about her pregnancy (this was 1963 and an ‘out of wedlock’ pregnancy was possibly the greatest shame she could exact on her mother); her best friend was scathing; her fellow students shunned her and, as a result, the social worker pressured her into giving up her baby. But she couldn’t forget her little girl and, when the opportunity arose (and against everything she been brought up to accept) she snatched her own baby. Why? Love. And doing what she knew was best for her daughter. The contrast of those times with the present are so immense, it pressured me to write this story, which is full of moral problems – for Jemma and the man who comes to love her, for the reader who is caught up in the story and, most of all, for the young detective assigned to the case. As a writer, I needed to know how he would react so I contacted a serving policeman with the New Zealand Police. We had a deep discussion about moral dilemmas and how a cop would deal with them. He opened my eyes and I had my ending.
