hers is one of those amazing novels where it pays off to hang in there - increasingly, I found, I was engaged by the narrator and the characters, and began to wonder about them almost as people in my life - what was this all about, what was lurking ahead - really ingenious skill of drawing us into what is an impossible dilemma - and it's not-too-neatly sorted so we don't feel let down or that it's contrived at the end. in returning to home ground, she was always going to run into trouble no matter how she thought she could avoid it - and once you accept this and are drawn it, it's unputdownable - really adept, skillful and engrossing. (I'm carefully not giving things away ... because i fear that any link I mention and the edifice will totter.. haha)

This is the first book I have read by Erin Kelly but it won't be the last. A dark and tense books where the secrets are slowly revealed layer after layer. Beautiful writing and the subject of mental health was sensitively handled.

I struggled to get into this one and I can’t pinpoint exactlywhy. I didn’t engage with the characters and the plot seemed a bit drab. Such a shame as I was looking forward to this one!

I liked it.

In fact, I liked Stone Mothers by Erin Kelly a lot.

I thought that the whole thing was well written, and I loved the history of the Victorian hospital – The Stone Mother.

I don’t think I’ve read anything quite like it.

I loved the very creepy, eerie and unjust setting. The Stone Mother was atmospheric. The building and architecture of the stone mother was a complete character in its own right. A character I enjoyed getting to know a bit more about.

But I will admit that I was a little bit bored at the beginning of the book, it took me a good few chapters before I found myself hooked. I did think about putting the novel down and DNFing on more than one occasion near the very beginning, which would have been a real shame because when the book grabbed me, it grabbed me.

In my opinion, the story definitely got stronger after the first third. It wasn’t so much a slow burn start as just slow. Of course, everything needed to be set up, but at points, I think Erin Kelly worked too hard at keeping – SPOILER, a secret for a bit of a twist. I just found the hint dropping a little tedious after a while. Especially when it is right in the blurb about – “the body they buried”.

The book is written and structured around three main parts, with different characters taking the lead role. The story works its way back through time, before returning to the present for the final act. I thought it was a rather fantastic plot device. I thought the plot structuring was clever.

Stone Mothers was the first book by Erin Kelly that I have read but it won’t be the last. It’s a book that I am sure I will be recommending to anyone and everyone on a regular basis. With a wee warning about the slow start.

It was a memorable read, and considering how crowded the crime/drama genre is, it is quite an achievement to stand out. And stand out it did!

Great read.

I received a copy of Stone Mothers by Erin Kelly for review from the publisher, via NetGalley. The review is my own opinion.

Wow, what a fantastic book. Finally got round to reading it after I heard Erin Kelly talking to Graham Norton and wished that I hadn't left it so long. There are so many aspects to this story but at the centre is family and love, especially a mother's love for her child. There is also the whole issue of mental health and how it has been treated over the last 150 years or so. Thank goodness things have progressed since the Victorian era of asylums, although the 1950's were also a bit of a low point - a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Another important aspect of the story is the keeping and telling of secrets, as revealed by the 3 "authors" and the narrative travelling back then forwards through time. A must read.

A victorious return to form from Erin Kelly. Nicely balanced timelines, a great story, excellently feminist.

I enjoyed the author's last book and this one didn't disappoint. The story goes between timelines of then and now and shows how the main protagonists lives were intertwined and how each of them were played a part in the outcome for them all.
I loved the story and couldn't put it down, I'll be looking out for the next book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish. The story starts in the present then jumps back 30 years to the 'incident', before going back a further 30 years to where the story began. A very emotional story at times as the brutal past treatment of mental health is illustrated. A fascinating insight into the old asylums and the scars they left. Excellent read.

A renovated asylum brings a woman back to a traumatic part of her youth, and the relationship she had then. An MP is also involved. Atmospheric writing and good characters but i felt the plot was over-complicated. Much preferred the author's previous novel so if she is new to you, start with this one and then move on to He Said/She Said

20% read and all I've been given are lots of hints and allusions to something that happened "that day" - tedious, formulaic and overdone. First person, present tense narration. Really, it couldn't be more like every second "thriller" written in the last five years if it tried. I suspect, of course, that that is what it's aiming for. Success, then, for what it's worth, and I'm sure plenty of people will enjoy it. Not me, however. Abandoned.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and of course the author for this digital ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

A slow start but I am glad I kept going this truly haunting and creepy tale of how 3 lives cross due to past secrets, how much would you sacrifice to keep the past hidden?

The look in to the way women were treated in the past in mental institutions is heart-breaking.

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Marianne is surprised when her husband buys her a flat in a converted asylum in the small town she grew up in. The move stirs up memories and ghosts that she has tried very hard to forget. Marianne just wants to protect the life she built, but she's not the only one with secrets.
This book grew on me as I read it; Marianne wasn't someone I sympathised with so her portion of the story just wasn't as gripping as the rest of the book. The other 3 narrators were far more interesting, particularly Helen's, who is mixed up in the events that took place in the asylum. By the end of the book, I couldn't stop reading and had to get to the end to find out how all the narrative strands tried up.

Three and a half stars!
I found this book quite hard to get into at first, but I am glad I persevered. The story moves from the present back towards the past and becomes more fascinating as it does so. The characters are well portrayed, the subject is fascinating and the plot unfolds backwards. Yet again Erin Kelly doesn't disappoint.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Erin Kelly/Hodder & Stoughton for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Stone Mothers was a slow starter for me: I really felt the atmosphere, the tension, the guilt and the fear in the first part of the book, where Marianne is catapulted back into the most secretive time of her life when her husband buys a property in Nazareth. Nazareth is a former mental hospital, pauper lunatic asylum, which closed down in the 80s. The local populace relied on Nazareth for employment, and the fiercely contested closure was marred by a crime from a former patient released into the community.

The book didn't really start to run away with me until the later sections, but I was particularly captivated by the sections in Helen's voice.

This is a fascinating book, exploring the difficulty of keeping secrets and the resounding impact on generations.

This story mainly centres around an abandoned Mental Health Hospital called Nazareth in Suffolk This is a very slow read which I found a little confusing and very complex .It is a very sad story ,many women in the past were treated in Mental Hospitals mainly because they were unwanted and they were given horrendous treatments to "cure" them .There are many secrets to be exposed and I found the story quite disturbing .Many thanks to the Publisher ,the Author and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review .

I quite liked this one, however I was slightly nonplussed with the ending. There was this brilliant lead up to the ending then just a small fizzle.... Maybe it was me, I've read so many crime thrillers that I've become desensitized.
Anyway I quite liked the reay of it and give it 8/10

The Victorians used to call their mental hospitals stone mothers,' I say. 'They thought the design of the building could literally nurse the sick back to health.'

Marianne grew up in the shadow of the old asylum, a place that still haunts her dreams. She was seventeen when she fled the town, her family, her boyfriend Jesse and the body they buried.

Now, forced to return, she can feel the past closing around her. And Jesse, who never forgave her for leaving, is finally threatening to expose the truth.

Marianne will do anything to protect the life she's built; the husband and daughter who must never know.
Even if it means turning to her worst enemy...

But Marianne may not know the whole story - and she isn't the only one with secrets they'd kill to keep.

Review - I was struggling a bit with this novel at the start as it was quite slow paced. The story is told through 3 different perspectives and through different timelines and for me the book became really interesting when told through Helen’s eyes who at first you think is the villain of the book until you learn more about her background, particularly her early days.

This novel focuses on several themes, namely mental health which seems to impact a lot of the characters, poverty, ambition and the impact on a small town through closing an old Victorian mental hospital where half the town were previously employed.

All in all it was a well crafted book, and quite a moving story, and definitely worth a read.

I’d like to thank NetGalley for sending me an advance copy of this book.

Erin Kelly never fails to keep you captivated.
With convincing characters, the story unfolds combining the present/past

What is their secret?
What did they do?

The only way to find out is to read it

Thank you netgalley, Erin Kelly and Hodder & Stoughton for allowing me to read and review this book.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC, which I have enjoyed reading.
This was not light reading, but was mainly about mental health issues and how it was dealt with in the past with the big asylum buildings, the Stone Mothers, of the title and how mental health issues are dealt with now.
It was an interesting insight into the differences from when Helen Greenlaw was a patient and how Honour is treated in the present day.
Recommended.

With thanks to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for this ARC in exchange for an open and honest review.

I was excited to read Stone Mothers after reading Erin Kelly`s last book He Said She Said.

Marianne had grown up in the small town of Nusstead in Suffolk. She lived with her single mother and little sister Collette. At the time the main source of employment in the area was Nazareth Hospital (the local lunatic asylum as it was known).

Marianne met her first love Jesse at school when they were both sent to lost property for replacement uniforms. During the evenings Marianne and Jesse hung around the disused hospital after it was closed by Helen Greenlaw who worked for the local health authority. One night a tragedy occurred that made Marianne leave Nusstead never to return.

In the present day Marianne held a doctorate and was married to Sam and they had a grown up daughter called Honour. When Sam bought a second property she was horrified to discover it was part of the Nazareth Hospital. In the intervening years since Marianne had left Jesse had become very angry and bitter. Jesse threatened to tell Honour what happened at Nazareth to make Marianne leave.

The plot was a slow burner and the story didnt really get going until the 40% mark. After that I was rapt and couldn't wait to read what would happen next.

The story was told from the POV of Marianne, Helen and Honour at different periods in time. The plot was quite dark involving suicide and self harm.

The most interesting was Helen`s story which began in 1958. The early part of her story was absolutely heartbreaking. It made me so angry because it happened to women in real life.

I quite liked the young Jessie who was the youngest of three brothers. I admired his loyalty to his family and his wish to get the asylum re-opened so his father could get his job back.

The descriptions of the derelict asylum were so chilling I could almost picture it. Despite the slow start I thought Stone Mothers was an excellent read. I highly recommend this book.