Five Women.
They meet at their NCT Group. The only thing they have in common is they’re all pregnant.
Five Secrets.
Three years later, they are all good friends. Aren’t they?
One Missing Husband.
Now the police have come knocking. Someone knows something.
And the trouble with secrets is that someone always tells.
The Mothers by Sarah J Norton Review
Who Would You Call To Help Hide a Body?
If you killed someone – who would you call to help you hide the body? Let’s face it, we all have that one person we would turn to if all hell broke loose. What if your husband went missing? Who would you turn to?
Firstly – a quick apology. This review for the blog tour a *little* late – due to unforeseen circumstances (mainly getting stuck in China on the way home for a Christmas holiday – where I promptly forgot you are blocked from all social media..) but I was determined to publish the review as soon as I could. My first review of 2020 – and what a cracker of a book to start the year with.
The Mothers by Sarah Naughton explores the connections between a group of mothers who originally met at an NCT meeting. Despite their very different personalities and backgrounds, pregnancy brought them together and secrets will knit their lives together in a way no one would expect.
When a husband is missing and a friend’s house looks like a crime scene, what secrets do the group hold close to their chests that could solve it all?
I enjoyed this book, but I can’t really put my finger on why. I can’t say I truly liked any of the ‘mothers’ or that I truly felt a connection with any of them, but I did sympathise with them. I did connect with the idea that motherhood often throws you together with women you would never normally be friends with, but with so many relationships to navigate and secrets to uncover, I didn’t find myself attached to any one character. I even found myself disliking certain characters more with each turn of the page, but that was most definitely deliberate – and there is nothing I love more than truly hating an obvious villain.
Despite not exactly knitting myself to one (or even two) of the characters, I found the plot engaging and the twists well-conceived. For the first time in a while, I think I may have liked a book more for the plot and writing, than the characterisation – which although was quite a surprise, makes a truly refreshing change.
Told in two timelines, Naughton weaves the tales of the five mothers with the storyline of that of the Detective Inspector Iona. I think the sexuality element of the detective felt a little out of place at times, with Iona often focusing more on her female companion than the case in hand, but I think that was more to do with my own frustration for the plot to move forward. However, although the book is a slow starter, it certainly picked up and again, although I guessed the ending before the twist, I was still left satisfied by the ending.
I have to admit that The Mothers is the first of Sarah J Naughton’s books that I have picked up – but the pacing, plot and clever writing has me intrigued enough to want to pick up her other work.
Many Thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers and Trapeze for inviting us on this Blog Tour.
Published by: Orion Trapeze
ISBN: 978-14091-846-0
