Book Review: The Good Mother by Cathryn Grant

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Amy’s life is picture perfect. Mess with that picture – you’re going to pay.

Amy’s life is close to perfect – two lovely daughters, a wonderful husband and she’s queen bee in her circle of soccer moms. She feels content, like she’s finally put some distance between herself and the terrible events of long ago.

The only fly in the ointment is Charlotte, a recent arrival to this affluent suburban community. The shameless way she dresses, the way the men look at her… it’s not right, she’s just not the kind of person they want around here.

Amy spearheads a drive to exclude Charlotte, to make it clear to her that she’s not welcome here. Infuriatingly, Charlotte doesn’t seem to care… And when her daughter joins the soccer team there’s just no getting away from her.

But Amy knows from bitter experience the kind of trouble a woman like Charlotte can bring. And there is no way on earth that her girls are ever going to be exposed to anything like that. The solution is clear - Charlotte has to go. No matter what it takes.

The gripping domestic thriller for fans of Liane Moriarty, T. M. Logan, and Sally Hepworth.

Welcome to the blog and I have a real treat for you – It’s my blog tour spot and I’m happy to be bringing my book review of this brilliant domestic thriller, The Good Mother.

The Good Mother is a stark warning that we can all become products of our past.  The past can haunt us, and it can keep tiptoeing back into our lives.  Is it ever possible to bury the past?  This premise is one that sends chills down my spine.  Can darkness seep its way into Pleasantville?  The characters seem to have the perfect life, the perfect husbands and children but what darkness threatens to tip the scales…is the catalyst a new neighbour?  This sets the tone for the entire story.  Violence has the capability of ruining the victim, fracturing communities and creating a lifetime of suffering for witnesses- especially child.  Mental illness can become an inevitable conclusion.

The opening chapter is a hellish nightmare.  No-one wants to live through that experience, especially a child in their informative years…the long-standing effects are cataclysmic.  This event was earth-shattering, therefore, this chapter really sets you up for the pace and the concerning tone of the novel. 

Fast forward in time.  A different location.  Worlds away from the past.  Amy has forged a completely new existence from the one she had experienced as a child. Therefore, she is determined nothing will be the same.  She has the perfect husband, beautiful twin daughters, an immaculate home, affluent neighbourhood and friends that care deeply about her.  She has fought from the bottom up, tooth and nail, to create this worlds away from her childhood, life.  She has been born again from the ashes.  Nothing will stand in her way.  Nothing. 

Life is sweet, she has absolutely nothing to worry about, that is, until Charlotte moves into her neighbourhood.  She somehow transports Amy back to her past…back to darker times.  A place that she never wanted to revisit again, as a result  the author has captured expertly the fear and the paranoia of past events coming back to haunt her.  She begins to feel that scar re-emerge, torn open.  It has never fully disappeared.  Moving hasn’t altered it, she is living with her very own Pandora’s box.    

I don’t particularly think that any of the characters were that likeable. However, Just like in a town you get different spectrums of personalities; this book also examines that.  Amy and her friends have moments of kindness, cruelty and deviousness.  The author used this to her strength – she developed depth and clarity to the characterisation.  Each character pulls a reaction from you, for whatever the situation is.  All the topics was handled with respect but brought to life with realism.  This was the perfect foundation for this taut domestic thriller. 

The Good Mother is smart and ridiculously suspenseful. A story of family, broken pasts with a meticulously laced plot. The perfect thriller. The perfect start to a new year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

About Cathryn Grant:

Cathryn is the author of the Alexandra Mallory Psychological Suspense series, Psychological Thrillers, Suburban Noir novels, The Haunted Ship Trilogy, and the Madison Keith Ghost Story series. THE GOOD MOTHER will be her second novel published with Inkubator Books.

Cathryn’s fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines, The Shroud Quarterly Journal, and The Best of Every Day Fiction. When she’s not writing, Cathryn reads fiction, eavesdrops, and tries to play golf without hitting her ball into the sand or the water. She lives on the Central California coast with her husband and two cats. 

Social Media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CathrynGrant

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CathrynGrant.Writer/

Website: https://www.cathryngrant.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathryngrant_fiction/

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cathryn-Grant/e/B004G1I484?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_3&qid=1566901527&sr=8-3