‘Stone mother’ was a Victorian term for an asylum. Such a building sits at the heart of this novel, looming large over the small Suffolk town of Nusstead and defining many of the characters’ lives. Having escaped her impoverished background, Marianne has tried to leave behind memories of her ex-boyfriend Jesse and the terrible crime they covered up together. With her mother declining due to dementia, however, Marianne is forced to return. Her wealthy husband Sam thinks he’s doing her a favour by buying a surprise pied-à-terre in Nusstead, but Marianne is horrified: the flat is in the former Nazareth Mental Hospital, now rebranded as ‘Park Royal Manor’. On top of that, Jesse is still around, and still exerting a magnetic pull on Marianne. What did the two of them do 30 years ago? And what links them to a successful (though widely loathed) politician, Helen Greenlaw?

Stone Mothers unfolds its secrets very slowly. Rather than alternating chapters, it’s split into four lengthy chunks, so we have to read almost 100 pages of Marianne’s present-day situation (loaded with portentous references to Something Bad™ that happened in 1988) before there’s a flashback. This doesn’t feel like the best structure for a story that relies so heavily on events from a character’s past: by the end of Part One, I was getting so frustrated that I was close to giving up. Part Three, set in 1958, is the most compelling, mainly because it gives some context to the only character in the book I actually found interesting. The ending is as clever and satisfying a conclusion as I’ve come to expect from Erin Kelly, though it can’t fully make up for the general slowness and lack of originality.

I don’t know what went wrong here, because I’ve consistently enjoyed Kelly’s novels. In comparison to most of her previous work, Stone Mothers is a bit... ordinary. There are some interesting themes, around the stigmas attached to mental illness and poverty, but these are hardly new ground for the genre. I feel like every other UK/US thriller in the past few years has involved someone who grew up poor returning to their small, insular hometown after achieving success/wealth (and, inevitably, having to face an awful secret from their past). I do enjoy this trope; I just expected something more from such an accomplished writer.

If you haven't read Erin Kelly yet, I'd recommend skipping this and trying one of her earlier books. The Poison Tree captures time and place so beautifully I can still easily call its setting to mind eight years after reading it. The Burning Air has one of the best twists I’ve ever read, a paradigm shift that changed everything I thought I knew about the story, a masterclass in how it should be done. He Said/She Said is irresistibly pacy and fantastically exciting, and the intriguing context of eclipse chasing makes it feel like something completely new.

Wow wow wow loved this book. The way we got the stories of the 3 main characters.
I found it quite educational as well I didn't know anything really about asylums. When you thought you had it all sorted out Erin pulls it into a totally different direction. One of my favourite books.
Would certainly recommend it anyone.

Gosh, one of those books that you simply have to finish, and have to finish quickly. Family loyalty, love and betrayal are at the heart of a book that is as much about societal values as it is about individuals. Great stuff.

# Stone Mother’s # Netgalley........
WOW 😮 This is not for the faint hearted by any means.A seriously superb, Audacious spooky book, in parts it actually made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Who would want to buy a apartment in a old asylum. No matter how luxurious it’s been transformed. Secrets of the past have to stay buried, what measures some will take to keep things buried. Yet the other person also has other secrets that is needed to stay secret, however instead of working together, one is going to expose the secrets. I don’t know if you have noticed I have not mentioned names or really given much away. One I will not put spoilers, the other thing. YOU DEFINITELY DO HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK. A SERIOUSLY CHILLING READ. IT’S

Another excellent book from this author, I have loved all of this author’s books and this one does not disappoint. Highly recommended, a great read.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Erin Kelly for the advanced copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

I am a big fan of Erin Kelly's writing, so I was looking forward to this new one. It certainly didn't disappoint. Marianne has returned to her home village to help look after her sick mother. It quickly becomes apparent that she and her old flame Jesse are hiding a big secret from their past. Whatever it is, they are blackmailing a local member of the House of Lords, an elderly woman called Helen. Helen was also the main instigator of the closing down of Nazareth, a psychiatric hospital which provided work for many of the locals. The secrets are gradually revealed, going back to the late 1950s when people were often powerless to prevent themselves from being sectioned and incarcerated, sometimes for life. I really enjoyed this book. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

Just as good as"He Said, She Said", this emotionally-charged book makes even the reader anxious. As actions and their consequences mesh and spiral into something bigger- and often worse - you are caught up in a feeling that nothing is ever going to be right. Set against the backdrop of the worst of early mental health treatment not only enhances the story but leaves you so much better informed and able understand a little more about what drives people to make the decisions they do..

Marianne's husband has surprised her by buying a second home in the renovated asylum near where she grew up.
Unfortunately the building has very disturbing memories from her youth and this is the reason she left the area and had planned never to return.
A slow paced psychological thriller with a few twist and turns.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

I ended up really enjoying this novel but it took me a while to warm to it.
In the first section the author tantalises us with an unspoken crime that haunts Marianne as she returns to her childhood home and the shell of the old psychiatric hospital there.
It links her to the Brame family and her childhood sweetheart Jesse.
But the characters really develop later on when we learn about what actually happened and how it involved local MP Helen Greenlaw.
I found the story of the inmates of the old asylum fascinating and I started to care about the characters as past collided with present.
So I would read this and stick with it as it becomes a really compelling read but my experience was that it needed a bit of initial perseverance.

God, I loved this. I had high expectations because I've loved all of Kelly's previous books, but I wasn't disappointed. All work and chores melted away as I read this continuously. Can't wait to buy this for all the thriller lovers in my family. I love love love Kelly's style and plotting.

Having read previous books by the author and coming from the area where the Stone Mothers is set I was looking forward to reading this book. The plot is good, the evocation of place is well done and the research meticulous. But.. .it just didn't quite do it for me and the unputdownable read just never materialised. On reflection, I think it was the Brame family who were the problem. Their characters never really fully emerged and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to sympathise with them or not. I've given this 4 stars as the background and setting were so interesting.

This is the first book I have read by Erin Kelly and I can honestly say it will definitely not be the last. This is an incredible book that is so clever the way it all links in together and although it is based over a timescale of many years the story just flows so easily.

The story revolves around an asylum in a little village, Nusstead. Marianne and Jesse both grow up in Nusstead and regularly visit, what is now an abandoned asylum. Whilst there they discover a secret which leads to a number of incidents. Years later Marianne has to face the fears of her past and return to her home where her Mother is ill. Will she be able to face the past ? And what will be the repercussions?

This is a beautifully written book that will have you absolutely captivated by the complex story and equally complex characters. I found my opionions on one or two of the characters changed as the story progressed and we discovered more about the past. The true horrors of the past are revisited and will the truth finally be revealed ?

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

Unfortunately, I just found this book far too slow for my liking. The characters were fine, nothing special and I didn't form any attachment. I think it would have been nice to hear from Jesse's POV but then I understand the decision to not include this. There was no real excitement throughout the plot and the 'big secret' was really unremarkable and quite simply dull, it really needed something more. I've enjoyed Erin's previous book but this just wasn't to the same level.

I certainly can't claim to reading many thrillers, but I do dip into the genre now and again, and this is my second Erin Kelly book, on recommendation of my mother (who was witness to the filming of an early work, but that's a story for a different time). One thing that gets me about the whole construct of too many books on that particularly shelf is how the narrative has to find ways to keep things from us, the reader, and many times the author fails to justify that. Here, however, it's like we get a genre thriller for non-thriller readers, for there certainly is a hard-and-fast reason for the main heroine to keep things from us in her narration. But there's also another claim to be had for this being a book for non-thriller fans, for there's a whole chunk of this book that's not thrilling in any way, shape or fashion. It proves that this is a volume where the author is trying something else – she's clearly writing About Something. And she's succeeding – she's conveying a balanced anger about the state of historical asylums and mental health care. And fair play to her, that's justified, and the book works well on that regard. The book – even when it sticks to thriller tropes – is also about something else, namely the legacy a parent gives their child, and whether that's nature, nurture, or something that can survive a nightmare circumstance.

But I came out of this thinking this wasn't such a commendable read as Kelly's last. Small details failed to convince, and the fact I struggled with the geography of the titular entity rankled. Yes, it worked in that it took me to places and a conclusion that I hadn't really expected, in that I thought our heroine would maintain her place in the focus of our attention, but the fact remained there is a third of this which really doesn't have the spark, originality or interest of the rest. That section is the heart of the book yes, but taking the thrill out of that core can only reduce the rest, which is a shame for whatever merits it had.

Sadly a did-not-finish one for me. The start was good, and got my interest in the character's past, but the plot was just too slow for my liking. I have stopped reading at 20%. But I would still want to try another book from Erin Kelly.

I enjoyed this story although at times I struggled as it seemed to take a long time to set up the story. I liked the evolution of the story
The basic premise concerns Nazareth hospital for insane, a death and the three people who know the whole story. It’s sets in two time frames and is told from the theee main characters POV.
I did like the fact your view of the characters and whether you like them and their motives change as the story continues.
Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for an ARC.
#NetGalley #StoneMothers

What a book. Quite amazing. It had everything tension, pathos, love, hatred. It gripped me to the last page. The. characters were beautifully drawn but it was Helen who stole my heart.

Thank you Erin Kelly for a fabulous read which will stay with me a long time.

As an after thought my grandfather died in a “Nazareth” hospital in the fifties. I still have his pitiful letter to my father pleading on him to take him out.

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

The beginning of this is weak. I found it quite dull and uninteresting and there was not much that enticed me to keep reading. Do not get me wrong, I loved the premise, setting it around an old asylum is very eerie and sets the perfect atmosphere and there was tension as we unravelled what Kelly’s plot was going to be. Eventually, this gets going and it ends up being an intense, atmospheric read, it still does not go at a million miles an hour but there is enough excitement to get the read going.

Although this is not a thrilling read, I loved how it was told. We start in the present day and then Kelly takes us to the past through the eyes of various characters, it was here that the book came alive for me. Reading about the past of the characters made them much more sympathetic, it gave them a background and a reason for why they behave the way they do in the present. Suddenly, characters I did not like in the present, had a meaning, they were likeable and I enjoyed getting to know their pasts.

Given the nature of this book, the plot is not always an easy one to read, it is very emotional and difficult to read at times, but perfect for the plot and the atmosphere that Kelly is going for. Kelly’s characters are perfect for the plot as well, they are so complex and realistic and I could not help but get involved in their story.

‘Stone Mothers’ is an increasingly dark, intriguing read that will tug at your heartstrings just prepare for a dull beginning.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy.

I first heard about this book via the What Page Are You On? podcast when the presenters raved about how good it was (is!) It's the first book by Erin Kelly I've read, and I thought the writing, plotting and structure were all excellent. (That cover, too! Fantastically eye-catching!)
The story centres around Nazareth, a Victorian mental hospital in Suffolk and the part it has played in the lives of three characters in particular. There's Marianne, now a successful academic who left the area as soon as she could, Jesse her old flame, and Helen, a respectable baroness and former MP. Gradually we find out how the three of them became tangled up in blackmail, secrecy and death, and as past and present events converge at headlong speed, Marianne is forced to revisit and confront some of her darkest moments.

The novel has great characters, all sorts of twists and some fiendishly good plotting. What I particularly enjoyed was how the author set you up to believe something - only to confound you later on in the story. I really liked the way my sympathies turned from one character to another, and how as a reader you have to keep rethinking your own views.

A real page-turner, wonderfully dark - highly recommended.

When I started Stone Mothers I wasn’t sure what to expect. Erin Kelly always manages to give the reader something different. What I got was a novel based around an asylum in Suffolk. It was one of those books that could have been set anywhere. The old asylums/hospitals were in many towns and their closures would have had the same impact that the closure of Nazareth had on the local community.
It takes a while to get to the horror of what happened in the asylum. The novel was one I struggled to put down at times but this part I was incapable of tearing myself away. Even the name is enough to send shivers down your spine. More so, because I had strong feelings that much of it was based on the truth. This is hard reading, it makes your blood go cold but it’s mesmerising. It’s something that I will be thinking about for some time.And, when you think about it, it’s not that long ago that people were treated this way.
It’s only a small part, other parts renew your trust in family and loved ones. It shows you not to be critical without knowing all the facts. Like I did, I admit that I was quick to pass judgement on certain characters and acts committed.
There is something that should stop me having a book from 2019 in my top ten books from 2018 but it’s hard to miss this one out. It is a book I need to buy for family members, because they told me tales from what they saw from working in a hospital that used to be an asylum.
I can not recommend this book enough. It’s a fantastic story but there is also so much to learn from it.