It is definitely the short straw of hospital medicine. A & E in a trauma centre on a Friday night in late January; almost midnight, and the waiting areas are rammed...
The Blurb
You think you know her…
But look a little closer
She is a stay-at-home mother of three with boundless reserves of patience, energy and love. After being friends for a decade, this is how Liz sees Jess.
Then one moment changes everything.
Dark thoughts and carefully guarded secrets surface – and Liz is left questioning everything she thought she knew about her friend, and about herself.
From the bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal – a new thought-provoking novel exploring the complexity of motherhood and all that connects and disconnects us.
My Review
This book had me on the edge of my seat from the first page to the last.
When Jess takes her baby, Betsey, to the A&E department at hospital, she finds her best friend, Liz, is the doctor on duty. What unfolds is every mother's nightmare, as Betsey is found to have an unexplainable fracture, and the finger is pointing straight at Jess, leaving Liz with a duty to inform social services and the police.
This was a powerful book, and it is thought-provoking from beginning to end. My sympathies lay with both of these characters, as they both find themselves in an impossible situation. Whilst Jess has always appeared to be the perfect mother, we get a glimpse of what is really going on beneath this façade of capability. Having myself been a mother to four boys under the age of seven, I could really identify with how utterly exhausted Jess was feeling. The book questions how this sleep deprivation can result in poor choices being made, how alone she felt, and how she did not understand her own feelings. My heart went out to her.
Liz was an equally interesting character. She is a busy doctor, wife and mother whose own busyness has meant that she hasn't been there for Jess as much as she would have liked. Nonetheless, she doesn't believe that Jess could have harmed her child, despite the evidence suggesting otherwise. She also has to deal with the secrets of her ageing mother, and come to terms with those. There is a strong parallel between both her mother and Jess's experiences.
Although the book is over 400 pages, I read it very quickly as it kept pulling me back. It was well written and perfectly paced, leaving me keen to get back to it between reading sessions.
Sarah Vaughan is a great storyteller and has the ability to hold her readers interested throughout. She is an author I will definitely be reading again. I highly recommend this book.
Book Details
ISBN: 978 1471165061
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Formats: e-book, audio, hardback and paperback
No. of Pages: 432 (paperback)
Purchase Links
About the Author
Sarah Vaughan is the Sunday Times and international bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal, Little Disasters and Reputation, plus two earlier novels. Translated into 26 languages, Anatomy of a Scandal became a worldwide number one Netflix limited series, watched for 200 million hours in its first month alone, and starring Sienna Miller, Michelle Dockery and Rupert Friend. Little Disasters dropped on Paramount Plus in May 2025, and stars Diane Kruger, Jo Joyner and a “powerhouse cast” including JJ Feild, Shelley Conn, Emily Taaffe and Stephen Campbell Moore. Reputation has been optioned by Made Up Stories and 3dot productions, the team behind Anatomy of a Scandal.
Before writing fiction, Sarah spent 15 years as a journalist, including 11 at the Guardian as a political correspondent and news reporter: great preparation for thrillers exploring power, privilege and misogyny, and incorporating police investigations and criminal trials. Brought up in Devon, she lives near Cambridge, England with her family and dog.
You can also find Sarah at:
(media courtesy of the author's website)
(all opinions are my own)
(Bookshop.org affiliated)
No comments:
Post a Comment