The Wrong Mother: the heart-pounding, twisty thriller with a chilling end

Product Information

There are so many questions to this thriller that will keep you guessing right up to the end. It was an engaging tale with some surprising twists (and some not so surprising) but an entertaining read all the same. I loved the village setting and along with the giant bonfire and Guy being constructed on the village green gave an air of Midsomer about it, making it very atmospheric. Get ready for a roller-coaster ride with this tense and twisty story of two women with dark secrets' HEAT This is a very straightforward and no fuss thriller. There are no unnecessary items or twists to get caught up on. I really appreciated this after reading a super twisty and messy book the other day. The pacing of this one was fantastic, and it kept me engaged throughout. I didn’t quite realize what I was getting into when I selected this one. I am not usually a huge fan of the whole “I need a child to be fulfilled” Faye is thirty=nine and single. She's terrified that she may never have the one thing she's always wanted: a child of her own. Then she hears about an on-line co-parenting app for men and women who want to have a baby, but don't want to do it alone. When the app matches her with smooth-talking, wealthy Louis, it feels as though the fates have aligned. But just one year later, Faye's dream has turned into a nightmare. She's on the run from Louis, with baby Jake in tow. IF you can understand the art form that is melodrama, and you like that type of entertainment, you'll like this. If you are looking for lots of believable characters and motives in your TV movies, then give this a pass.

This is one of those books that both excels past its genre and stays firmly in it. Hannah never breaks the rules of thriller in this book, but she expands the notion of what a writer of thrillers can do. All the things that you want from a thriller writer are here - tight and intricate plotting, suspense, and unexpected twists and turns. Add to those things compelling characterizations and deft writing and the book is successful. But it was a gripping thriller with morally grey characters all with well built personalities - I even laughed out loud a few times at some of them. Lily finally goes to Maddie’s house for about 5 mins and then finds photos of her family and a therapist card on a desk. Lily goes to the office of the therapist, who lets her come in and talk without an appointment. The therapist is trying to diagnose Lily with anxiety? Lily keeps trying to clarify that she doesn’t need therapy, she is trying to see if a patient is dangerous. When the therapist hears Maddie’s name, she is like… oh her? She is VERY dangerous. (The therapist should know, she gets murdered in the next scene.) A murder mystery, a psychological study—these elements are set against an almost comedic exploration of the police detectives assigned to the case to form a multilayered drama. This is a Made-For-TV movie, please keep that in mind before you watch\rate it. TV movies have a much lower budget, and so your expectations should be adjusted.What I liked about this one is we get all the answers. It sounds lame but I love it when everything is tied up, there are no loose ends. If you’re someone who likes to guess whodunnit you might not be impressed because there is info withheld so I honestly think the chances of anyone working it out in advance are slim. Sophie Hannah's story is so brilliantly complex that I could not read it too late at night, for fear of nodding off and missing some key elements. I found Rachel annoying, the premise of her irritated me, reminding me of my university with housemates that are too nosey, rude and unhelpful. But also Faye herself, her character looked and sounded unrealistic - her choices and actions remind me of a teenager. I know age shouldn't be a defining factor to how someone behaves but there is no way Faye would react like that in todays world. I found it hard to feel sympathy for Faye because ultimately in the end its her poor choices which could have been avoided. I wasn't a fan of how the ending was like 'pop', the truth comes out and the ending is minor and its finished. The ending felt rushed for such a heavy build up to it. Faye is almost 40 and terrified that she may never have a child of her own. When she discovers an app that pairs like-minded adults, she jumps aboard. She soon meets Louis. He seems great except when she wants love, he wants only a child and treats this as a transaction. Desperate for a child, Faye agrees. Now Faye a year later, and with a baby in tow, she’s on the run. She runs right into the open house of Rachel, an older woman with a room for rent in her small cottage. However, it isn’t long before things don’t seem as perfect with Rachel as Faye thought. Is she hiding something? Is she safe?

The family makes breakfast and act like nothing happened. Flash to Maddie in the park posing a Josie and inserting herself into another widowed man’s life.

MOST READ REVIEWS THIS WEEK

Cynthia and Michael get along really well. On their way from a meeting, Michael tells her that they make a great team. He doesn’t tell her about him dating Maddie. She clearly likes him. When Cynthia stops by to drop off some papers while Maddie and Michael are drinking wine, Maddie aggressively introduces herself. Cynthia is hurt that Michael wouldn’t have told her. Lily stops Cynthia before she goes and says that she is concerned about Maddie and has a bad feeling. Cynthia promises to look into it. (She later finds out that Maddie stalked another family and her real name is Claire.) There is nothing ordinary about this tale that begins with an affair and ends in death. Whatever might seem to be a predictable scenario is soon found to be anything but, and as we struggle to add up the clues, hoping to finally understand what happened, we keep bumping up against the incongruities, the misdirection, until finally we are desperate just to understand what happened and why. But, Sophie Hannah has a way of SHOWING the reader that the police has solved the mysteries and the case and then TELLING how they solved it. It would've been better if it was the other way around.

This is a pretty standard thriller that is let down by a few niggling things, which should have been ironed out before filming. exemplary job as Samantha, Kaylene's tough-as-nails best friend. She epitomizes the no-nonsense fly in Vanessa's ointment. There are some chilling aspects to this story that will resound with great big warning bells going off letting you know that something definitely is not right with these two women...but figuring out what is half the fun!

But a year later, Faye's dream has turned into a nightmare. She's on the run from Louis with baby Jake in tow, ditching her damp pokey flat and her beloved piano, in search of somewhere safe to hide. And then she sees an advertisement for a room to rent... Knives, added an extra for Ms. Vivica A Fox and Cindy Busby stepping outside of her Hallmark comfort zone.) This was an ok read, with super unlikable characters but an engaging story. It centers on Faye who is in the run with a newborn baby, and Rachel who rents a room in her house to Faye. Both characters have things to hide and while there is no major twist, there is suspense throughout. But for fans of these made for TV movies "The Wrong Mother" is still watch-able as many of the others are with a nice cast delivering their characters in, well thankfully not an awkward manner which certainly helps. And much of what makes "The Wrong Mother" watch-able is that Brooke Nevin does a nice job of bringing out Vanessa's spiteful side with that mix of those classic evil stares and her character's controlling nature.