The Guilty Mother follows the story of Melissa Slade, imprisoned for killing the second of her twin baby daughters, after the first twin passed away of SIDS (cot death).

Five years on and new evidence has come to light that may just prove that Melissa may have been innocent all along. And if it wasn’t her, then who did it? The story is not predictable at all (even though I kept thinking I’d solved it!) and there are plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing, right up until the last few pages.

I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a gripping solid who dunnit.

The Guilty Mother by Diane Jeffrey was just gripping!.
Loved it from the first few pages, it had me sucked in and wanting to know more.
Being set in Bristol, (and being from Bristol myself) i could easily picture the areas and places within the story. I loved all the characters, without giving anything away, I found the colleague relationship between Kelly & Jon endearing and the only person I hated was Michael Slade!
Lots of tales, twists and shockers within the storyline, I loved how all the "coincidences" actually linked up and came full circle.
Was fast paced and easy to follow. I really enjoyed this book and read within 24hrs.
Would recommend!

What a great book, never saw the ending coming. Great continuous read, couldn't put this one down.



Thanks to net galley and the publisher for an early release of this book.

Rating- 2.5

This book had potential but the pace was too slow. Even the twists didn't feel very thrilling in the end because the author took too long to reveal some things. It could've been a much better book if it was fast pacing. I feel like the main issue was put aside throughout most of the book and we are just given insight into the lives of journalists and their personal lives. This book being a thriller should have had more focus on the murder mystery.

I want to thank the publisher for sending me a copy of this book.

"The Guilty Mother" is an engrossing thriller told from three points of view - Journalist Jonathan Hunt, Journalist Kelly Fox, and Melissa Slade, the mother in question. When a second tragedy occurs in the home of former police inspector Melissa Slade, she is sentenced to life in prison for murdering her daughter. After five years in prison, she has the chance of a new appeal. Jonathan Hart is assigned to look into the case and to have new reporter Kelly Fox work with him on the story. Jonathan is dealing with personal issues and at first is uninterested, but Kelly's enthusiasm as well as developments in the case, get his attention and soon he is invested in figuring out the real truth in this case.

This story moves back and forth between the past and present, but the timelines are clearly labeled and easy to follow. I connected with Jonathan immediately and liked him more and more as events from his past are revealed. I wasn't sure what to think about Kelly at first, but grew to like and respect her as the story progressed. My theories about the case and Melissa's innocence or guilt changed throughout the book as more information is given and plot twists occurred. At one point, I followed the clues and thought I had everything figured out, but there was so much more to the story than I thought. The juicy twists keep going in this thriller. It's clear Melissa is holding things back but not what those secrets are or what her motive is. Jonathan and Kelly make a great team in the way they research and report on the facts surrounding the investigation.

I didn't want to put the book down until I got to the end to find out what had happened and when everything is disclosed, it's a shock. Kelly Fox has a mystery of her own in her personal life. An expected person offers to help her at the end, but it's left open-ended. I would love to see a follow-up to this book featuring Kelly. I would give this book 4.5 stars and had no problems rounding that to 5 stars. Fans for Fiona Barton will enjoy this suspenseful book.

I received this book from NetGalley through the courtesy of HQ Digital. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

** spoiler alert ** Didn't really get beyond ok for me.... 
There's a lot of investigating going on,far too many coincidences,people believing the worst of each other...

Don't get me wrong,it's not bad,it just wasn't edge of my seat stuff,and nothing surprised

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of The Guilty Mother!

Melissa Slade is loving every mother’s worst nightmare. She is serving a life sentence for the murder of her daughter Ellie, twin to Amber. Amber passed away a few months before Ellie however Melissa was found not guilty of her death, the jury convinced she died from cot death. Jonathan and Kelly are reporters for a local newspaper tasked with writing about Melissa’s new appeal to her murder conviction. Along the way they discover secrets everyone involved in the twins’ lives are keeping, including some very close to home for them both! So for my opinion... overall a good book! The author kept me fully engaged and always wanting more however I felt towards the end I was speed reading and practically holding my breather for the big twist and... it didn’t really come! That is my only complaint. While the ending does reveal a small twist it wasn’t all that big of a shocker... a bit predictable! However, I’d still highly encourage any reader to try this book!

Wow !!!! This book has it all: murder, lies, secrets, family, mystery.

Twists and turns so many my head is spinning.

The title says its all : Guilty Mother : Who would you Believe?

You think you know but do you ?

I will remember this book for a long time to come .

I am off to get more of Diane Jeffrey's books.

Thanks to Net Galley and HQ Digital for the pleasure of reading The Guilty Mother.

This ARC was courtesy of netgalley - all thoughts and opinions are mine and unbiased

This had been hooked from the first to the last page - loved it !! - did not expect it to end the way it did - thrilling - no pun intended!!

A great read

The Guilty Mother had an interesting premise but I found this one was a little hard to connect with because the characters were so unlikeable. As far as psychological thrillers go, it had a good mystery and level of suspense but I felt it dragged on a bit. I also struggled with keeping track of some of the characters because of the similarities with the names, specifically Mel and Melissa. For a good portion of the first part of the book, I thought they were the same person which was confusing when trying to follow the storyline. All in all, this was okay, just not my favorite!

What a fantastic book, it had me gripped from the very first page and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. Excellent characters and such a well developed story with a great ending, well done Diane I look forward to your next masterpiece.

Thank you to Netgalley and HQ Digital for giving me the opportunity to read this brilliant book.

This book is a crazy thriller read and keeps you going back and forth trying to figure out if Melissa is guilty or not. Did someone else possibly have a hand in killing the babies or was it really Melissa? Could she possibly have killed her babies?

This story is told in three different POV's. We get Melissa's, the convicted murderer that has filled for an appeal, Jonathan's, the news reporter that has been assigned by his boss to cover the story again since he covered the original story and trial, and Kelly's, Jonathan's co-worker. Even though there are three different POV's going on, I found this one easy to follow. I liked that we got Melissa's POV as well as the reporters covering the case.

Melissa is in prison for murdering one of her twin daughter's. There was no fault found with her first daughter's death and they were unable to stick the murder on Melissa. The second twin's death though they did stick on Melissa and she has been serving time for that. As Jonathan and Kelly investigate certain aspects of things that are uncovered with the new evidence coming to light, your mind goes back and forth wondering who could have done it. Your heart aches for Melissa in the process because loosing twin baby girls has to be hard on anyone.

I love how Diane Jeffrey keeps you on your toes and guessing as to who actually could have done this to the twins. In the end, you are left with jaw dropping revelations that have you asking yourself how could that have been? I thought this was a great read and I enjoyed the ride with Melissa, Jonathan and Kelly.

All opinions in this review are my own. Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for an advanced copy of this book.

Absolutely fantastic had me gripped!!! Loved it! Can't wait for more from.this author. Storyline was great, characters were easy to.connect with

Thank you for the advanced copy

This is the first book I have re ad by this author. A fantastic read - I read it i n two nights. Very easy to read and kept me interested from the Very first word to the very last.

This thriller is told from three different perspectives. From Melissa's point of view, a convicted child murder who was sentenced to jail but is now applying for an appeal, Jonathan's POV, a local new paper journalist who covered the original story and now must jump back into the case at the insistence of his boss, as well as Kelly's POV, Johnathan's coworker. I found this story very interesting and the plot really kept me on my toes. While I'm not usually a fan of books with switches in point of view's I found this one to be really well done and it didn't mess up the flow of the story at all, I think that it actually enhanced it for the reader, giving them different takes on things. Melissa's point of view talks about what happened the night that her children was murdered, while Jonathan's talks about the here and now. I found each character very interesting and I had to get to the bottom of the murder. What happened that night? Was Melissa really guilty, and if so what made her do what she did? This thriller will have you up all night just waiting to see what happens next. I was completely sucked into this story line and every question I had was followed by another that I couldn't wait to find the answer to. I found the characters in this book very likable and I really felt the pain that they were going through. The author did a great job of pulling me into the story line as if I was in the room while it happened. While this is my first book from Diane Jeffrey it won't be my last that is for sure this book skyrockets her to the top thriller authors of this decade and I can't wait to see what else she writes.

The story focuses on Melissa Slade, who is currently in prison serving time for murdering one of her children. When the chance of an appeal,presents itself, two journalists investigate the case. The premise was interesting and I enjoyed the way we got to ‘hear’ both sides of the story. The book was well written and well edited.
However the plot itself I found weak and predictable, and I guessed the twist long before the ending. This meant I lost interest half way through and skim read the second part. I also disliked most of the characters who seemed a little stereotypical, there was little new or challenging in the story.
Sorry but this book just wasn’t for me.

THE GUILTY MOTHER by Diane Jeffrey

I would like to thank @netgalley and HQ Digital for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I listen to a lot of podcasts about true crime and wrongful convictions, so when I saw this book was about a mother who was charged with murder but was appealing the ruling as a "miscarriage of justice" as they say in the book, I was hooked. As the story is told through multiple POVs, it started out a little confusing for me as they characters didn't have a distinct tone of "voice" right away. However, after a few chapters, the pace started to pick up and it was easier to tell the narrators apart.

Going into this, I had expected a "did she do it or did she not do it?" kind of story, but it was much more than that. There were a few extra mysteries, for a lack of a better word, thrown in that tied people together and added a whole lot of red herrings to make you question your original lines of thinking. The end felt a little bit rushed, and there were some questions and loose ends left hanging with no definitive answer, just speculation.

Over all, I would say this is a decent thriller/mystery and I would recommend it to people who enjoy that specific genre.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ THREE and a HALF stars

(Review to be cross posted to Instagram @homelifereads)

Thanks to Netgalley and HQ Digital for providing this ARC I exchange for an honest review.

Melissa is in jail for murdering her daughter, the second of her children to die. She has been in jail for a few years when new evidence comes to light and journalists Jon and Kelley start looking at her case.

4.5 stars. This was a good quick read. When I had to put it down, I found myself wanting to go back to it. I really wanted to know what had happened. There were a lot of coincidences, as there tend to be in these kinds of books to make the story work, and I liked that the author acknowledged that through the characters' dialogue. I also liked the characters. I almost feel like we could do with another book featuring Jon and Kelley. This is my second book from this author and I am 2 for 2, so I look forward to her next one.

WOW!!! This book was an amazing thrill ride that I couldn’t put down. Highly enjoyable from beginning to end.

4.5/5⭐

Thank you #NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange of my honest opinion.

This book is sooooo good!!

I have never read a book by this author before and now I cannot wait to pick up another one!

I loved everything about it!

I loved the story told by two characters: a journalist and the murderer in the first part. And then, the two journalists in the second part. I loved that the main journalist is a male. I loved how fast paced it was. I loved the short chapters. I loved the writing style (Easy to read, addictive, mysterious, well written). I loved the plot. Everything!!

I also liked every character (But one), which is unusual but I cared for everyone of them. I felt like another member of this story and I lived it with them in a way that actually affected me like it did to them.

I liked how the chapters pretty much always ended with an intriguing touch that made me want to read one more chapter. And that's how I read this book in 2 days.

Although we have already seen families that struggle in thrillers, I found the plot of "The Guilty Mother" unique, different and absolutely worth the read.

The end was very satisfying and I was shocked by the last plot twist! Yaaas! I loved it! And I will read more of her books 100% !!