Every one of us should have someone we can call to help bury a body (figuratively, you understand). Bella, Chrissy, Sky, Electra and Jen are a rather unlikely group of friends, but they have each other. They’ve stayed together despite not having very much in common: entirely different personalities, living and financial conditions and parenting styles.

After meeting up at an ante-natal group, they formed a close bond that three years on, is stronger than ever, and when Bella’s husband Ewan goes missing she turns to her friends for help. These women have become her tribe and her only source of support – where else would she turn?

I loved this gripping page-turner! It brought back memories of my own days of being part of an ante-natal group (not the psychological thriller part – the part where you meet people who become life-long friends).

Ewan isn’t the most likeable of characters, and quite honestly, the more the plot develops and the more I learnt about him, I increasingly felt that Bella was surely better off without him and that she should have considered herself lucky that he’d done a bunk. But the police are inclined to think differently and are sure she knew about his illicit dealings at his company, implicating her in his disappearance. The less she claims to know, the more suspicious they become.

DI Iona Chatwin, who we hear from, along with the points of view of each of the mothers, was the one person I found most difficult to like. She lacked the confidence that I felt a person in the police force, on a case like this, should have displayed. She seemed so uncomfortable in her own skin, and so at odds with each of the mothers. She had no clue what to make of them and couldn’t seem to figure anything out. Too much was made out of the fact that she was gay. I appreciated that this was pointed out to the reader, but there was too much emphasis on it, which did more to detract from the story than anything else.

Apart from this though, the other characters are all complex and their lives and problems (oh, so many problems) are easy to absorb yourself in. The difficulties of everyday life, living with children, trying to fall pregnant, dealing with perceived societal pressures were all so well highlighted.

Ms Naughton keeps the twists and turns coming from every angle, and each of these women has her own back story to keep you on your toes. It’s one of those ‘just one more chapter’ books that keeps you up reading late into the night because you just keep turning (or swiping) those pages!

I highly recommend this 4-star read. The plot is well constructed and had me guessing right until that final reveal.

The bond between mothers and their children is strong, but there is also a strong bond between these 5 mothers who met at their NCT class and stayed with each other throughout their pregnancies. A chav; a media-twat; a hippy; a Sloane and a frump. They should have nothing in common, but their shared experience has brought them together and after their various births, they stay in contact.

Sarah Naughton’s book moves effortlessly between past and present; painting a picture of these womens’ lives with their children and where appropriate, their partners. Unlikely friends, they nevertheless bond and look out for each other at their regular Mother’s Club get-togethers.

Naughton gives us pen portraits of each of these women; their troubles, the secrets they are hiding and their relationships, warts and all.

Then Bella Upton’s husband goes missing and the police are called in to investigate. Detective Inspector Iona Chatwin is called in to investigate and soon it becomes clear that this family had a lot to hide. Has Ewan Upton done a runner, or is something darker at work here? When one of the women, Jennifer Baptiste, who had taken on the role of child-minder to Bella, cannot be found, the police begin to see connections.

Naughton’s book tells the story from the perspective of each of the women involved, seamlessly weaving their stories from when they met through to the present day. This character driven narrative creates a well rendered picture of each of the women and the challenges they face in their roles as partners, mothers and in their working lives.

Each has a story to tell, but no-one is telling the whole story. Their fraught lives begin to fall apart as Naughton lets us into their daily struggles to stay on top of their lives. We get to know these women well enough to be able to follow the different lives without difficulty.

The unlikely friendships are explored and Naughton shows us how their bonds are tested, leading to the disappearance of Bella’s husband.

Into this scenario, Naughton introduces the possibility of not one but two crimes, leading the police to conclude that they must be related. But the women claim to know next to nothing and their friendship starts to look a lot more superficial than we knew.

Naughton cleverly layers her plot so that there is tension and real mystery surrounding these women and as the story peels back the layers, there is a very real psychological thriller at its heart.

Verdict: Clever plotting, addictive and credible characters lead to a nicely twisted mystery that grips the reader’s attention and builds to a satisfying conclusion.

I'm not entirely sure what exactly I expected from this book - but, boy, did it take me by surprise!

Five women who met when they were all pregnant and have kept in regular touch. All from very different walks of life, these women - on the surface - have very little in common but they have all pledged to be there for each other, come what may. When one husband goes missing and the police become involved we begin to find out about each and every one of their lives . . .

This is a slow starter but, trust me, it is a stunning read. Little by little we get to know each of these women and what their lives are like; with 'before' and 'after' chapters for each of them, we discover what was going on before and after one of their husbands disappeared. I found myself drawn into each of their lives, easily putting myself in their shoes and understanding their joys and concerns.

As the story continues, I found out things which I didn't see coming and the word 'wow' was uttered more than once! What a cracking thriller and definitely one which women, in particular, will adore. The title and the cover are just perfect for what comes inside and the characters are awesome, added to which the ending totally took me by surprise! Beautifully planned and executed, this is different to anything else I've read in this genre and cements Sarah J Naughton onto my 'must read' list of authors. Easily a full five stars, and earning each and every one.

My thanks to publisher Trapeze for my copy via NetGalley; this is my honest and original review.

The mothers

Publish date: 30.04.2020
This is a really good book by #sarajnaughton!
The plot evolves around five friends and the investigation of a missing husband. The plot was quite interesting and although I thought it would be quite predictable there were some really unexpected plot twists!
This book has it all! Mystery, crime, unexpected friendships but what I really enjoyed is how the characters, albeit so different, held on to what they had in common and built their relationship! I also really enjoyed how real they were portrayed - their desires, expectations, fears, strengths and weaknesses! There was no sugar coating and I think this book is greater because of it!
My favourite kind of reading evolves more around the investigation but I really did enjoy reading about these women’s stories and I think the book was expertly written and the plot flawless!
I would like to thank #orionbooks #orionpublishinggroup and #netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read #themothers ahead of its publish date in exchange for an honest review.

More than just mothers, the main characters in this book are wives, women, and friends. Different but standing close, like the colours on a painter’s palette. They don’t mix, but they have the possibility to create worlds. Or destroy them. Sarah J. Naughton plays with tones and paints a disturbing canvas of friendships and secrets.

Addictive and highly toxic, this novel seized my attention with a prologue that left me speechless. Claustrophobic and anxiety-inducing, it played its role perfectly!!! Who? Why? I was hooked!  Sliding from the present to the past, from the police to four women, the pace of The Mothers is creative and efficient. Each protagonist voice is clear enough so you don’t forget who you are following. I loved how I got to know Iona, a detective hoping for a good case to work on to take her mind off her workplace crush, Maya. Would a missing husband do?

I thought the book would keep me with Iona for the entirety of the story but as I turned the pages, I could feel the writing tearing me away from her, pulling me closer to Electra, Chrissi, Bella, and Jen.

Bella and her missing husband. Her so-called friends barely hiding their contempt for one another. Sarah J. Naughton impressed me with her clever way to introduce the reader to the characters, making sure you get hints to build a first impression of everyone… before planting seeds of doubt. The narration slowly reveals secrets and cracks coming from all places. Scars and arguments, struggles and tears helped me feel for the four women. Everything I thought I knew was ripped apart.

No matter what your situation is, being a mother is big. And different. And it pushes you to the edge. The question to ask yourself is who is by your side to prevent you from falling. Who is the person you call at three in the morning to bury a body?

Bella’s missing husband case turned into a twisted exploration of relationships and hardships, turning this thriller into something more. Something big and shocking. The more I dug into the mystery, the less I could see clearly. The only constant element throughout the novel is the bond between those four friends. A bond that proves to be much stronger than I could have imagined.

When I neared the ending, the author threw another twist my way and it was a cold shower. A freezing and gob-smacking bomb that completely took me by surprise. Talk about manipulation and deceit!

The Mothers is a gripping psychological suspense with multiple layers and enough material to keep you on your toes until the last page.

Oh I did love this one! It’s a gripping, twisty female dominated drama that bases itself around the relationships that women make when they become mothers. Any woman who’s been pregnant knows how isolating it can be but friendships made at NCT classes or similar can be a godsend and last for many years to come. But here a group of 5 women have come together with seemingly very little in common apart from that initial pregnancy. But they are still in contact regularly and as we look back at the past couple of years of meet-ups, we find out more about their lives away from their friends. And when the husband of one of the mothers goes missing, secrets and lies are revealed with some rather shocking results!

I spent most of this book wondering what the hell these women were still doing together?! They had nothing in common apart from their children (and in one case not even that!) and they didn’t seem to provide the support that you would expect from antenatal group friends. Each of them had their own problems and difficulties with parenting and family life but they were coping on their own. Even when Ewan goes missing they weren’t the most supportive of their poor friend Bella! My favourite of the women was probably Electra as I could relate to her more as a fellow mum of twins and her struggle to come to terms with motherhood not being the journey she was expecting.

This is my favourite of Sarah’s books so far. It’s deliciously dark, deviously decadent and I adored every single page! It’s a 5 star page turner and I highly recommend it!

A fast paced, gripping thriller! I love how you uncovered the story more & more as the book progressed. I was hooked from the first chapter.

The characters were all incredibly written & you found yourself sympathising with each of the women regarding their lives. I love how different they all were from each other.

Out of all the twists there was only one small one I saw coming but the others had me shocked!! I can’t wait to read more from this author.

This book is brilliant. More twists and turns than you can imagine. The bond of new mums who meet at antenatal classes is very strong!! How much would you do to help a friend in need??! Fantastic read. Thank you for letting me review this book. Absolutely loved it x

This was a good mystery story.
I felt it was a little overcomplicated in places and had a few too many characters to keep track of, but overall a good read.

A great story. Reminiscent of Lianne Moriarity. A mysterious novel that was interesting and compelling. Very good x

You will find yourself utterly engrossed from the start !!

Five women meet at a NCT group and continue to meet up every few months for a get together but are they truly friends ? One of the ladies husband suddenly goes missing and the police are soon investigating. Does someone know more than they are letting on ?

This is a great book with some brilliant characters. There are plenty of secrets to be discovered and you will find yourself completely hooked from start to finish !!

Thank you to Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

This was a book I finished in one sitting, well written, good pace, the story gradually unfolds as you read each chapter, keeping you guessing, until about half way through, then I guessed what had happened, some of the suspense left for me then, along with the believability of parts of the story. Mainly the police side of it.

Five women all totally different, they shouldn’t really get on as they only have one thing in common, they all attended ante natal classes together, and had children. Bella, Chrissy, Electra, Skye and Jen. A stay at home mum until husband practically forces her back to work, a high flying lawyer, PHd qualification, free spirit massage therapist, and a woman struggling to get a job.

The story is told in different POV each chapter starts with one of the women or DI Iona Chatwin, initially with the women it’s 3 years before, then 2 years before gradually counting down until in the present time, with Iona it’s the present.

Bella Upton reports her husband missing, he hadn’t gone to work and wasn’t home, when Di Chatwin and DS Yannis Mohamud go to the house, Bella tells them he has taken his passport and a suitcase, for them this is a case if husband leaving wife and child. Until they hear from his work that there is money been embezzled, and that Ewan Upton has a gambling problem, now they want to know whether Bella knew about his addiction, and the money stolen. When interviewing the other mothers they get the impression these women don’t actually like each other, but just meet up every 3 months out of politeness. But is that true? When they go to interview Jen she is missing and her home looks like a crime scene, a smashed table with Jen’s blood.

I did enjoy this book to a point, my problem was not one of the relationships the women had with husbands and partners were happy ones, it showed all the women to me as being insecure, two of the women have partners much younger than themselves, Bella is much younger than her husband Ewan and her confidence has totally gone, Skye’s father of her child is gay, Having had children I know your life changes dramatically, tiredness, lack of sex drive, the dynamics are different. But I think I would have liked at least one of these relationships to be working. This then made it difficult to actually care too much about them.

The police investigation was just a little unbelievable, DI Iona spent more time worrying about what she was going to buy another female colleague as a secret Santa gift, and was mooning over her, this didn’t really add to the story in any way that I could see, except to let us know she was gay.

I did guess what had happened, but still read to the end to see what the outcome was, in case of any surprises but it just didn’t happen. This wasn’t really the writing as such was just the plot just fell a little short of being believeable.

I would like to thank #netgalley and #Trapezepublishers for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review.

„Five Women. Five Secrets. One Missing Husband.”

Five women met when they were pregnant and stayed in touch. They became close friends despite the fact that they have totally different personalities. The story is told in two timelines. In the present there is Iona, a police detective, who soon gets a feeling that something is not right with the story the wife and her friends tell about the missing husband. The past timeline is told from all of the women’s POV. We learn how they met, became friends and what happened finally with the husband.

“The Mothers” is a decent character driven crime story. The main focus is on the women and their problems. All of them have issues in their relationships and are still trying to find their way around motherhood. In the middle the story seems to lose the plot but towards the end it came back on track and took some turns which were mildly surprising. But it is entertaining enough and has a tangled story which keeps you guessing.

A gripping thriller with enough twists and turns to keep the most jaded of readers engaged, The Mothers by Sarah J Naughton is the story of five very different women who meet and bond in a pregnancy group , and continue the friendship over the years. When the husband of Bella, one of the women disappears, it soon becomes apparent that most of the mothers have something to hide, and several of them may not be as friendly as they would have you believe. As the police investigate the disappearance , the true story unfolds from the various women's perspectives,and past and present timelines , which could have been confusing were it not handled so well., and the whole book comes together in a most satisfactory manner.
I had not read any of this author's work before, and I am hugely impressed. Each of the mothers was an interesting and well crafted character in their own right, and the dynamics between them were masterfully handled. Also masterful was the way the author was able to manipulate the plot to create a real sense of intrigue and mystery about what had really happened. It is rare for a thriller to grip me the way this one did, and I highly recommend it to fans of the genre.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

An enjoyable, twisty read, but the ending was a bit of a disappointment.

Yes it was a surprise, but it was confusing that the Iona story wasn't really finished? Felt a bit off.

I did enjoy it but the ending was disappointing.

I really enjoyed this book; it’s fast paced, full of suspense and will keep you guessing right up to the last page.
The characters quickly draw you in and are well developed throughout. The ending was fabulous.
I’d definitely recommend this one.

Five star suspense from beginning to end. This is a fantastic read with such spellbinding moments of tension I had to remind myself to breathe. All leading to a momentous conclusion. I loved every minute.

‘Five women. Five secrets. One missing husband.’
Five very different ladies form an unlikely friendship group during their pregnancies. Three years later and Bella’s husband goes missing. The police begin to investigate....
I am undecided about this book. I really enjoyed the character development and loved that the ladies were all so different. But in real life, would they actually be friends, even if they were pregnant together? I am not so sure.
The book is written well and I liked the narration from different viewpoints. I was interested as events were revealed, and I really enjoyed the last chapter! But however interesting it was, I feel it was a little far-fetched for me.
A good, solid thriller. A quick read, with some twists and turns along the way.

This will go live at the link below (+ Goodreads and Amazon) on 11 January:
Hi and welcome to my stop on the tour for The Mothers! Many thanks to Tracy Fenton for the invitation and to Trapeze Books (Orion Publishing Group) for the eARC via NetGalley!

The Mothers alternates between present events and the history of the five mothers, starting three years earlier after they’d met at prenatal classes. Bella, Electra, Chrissy, Jen and Skye couldn’t be more different if they tried, but somehow they work. Or do they? When Bella’s husband vanishes it’s clear that this is just the tip of the iceberg, that there’s more to the mothers than you see at first glance. A police investigation ensues, but this is in no way a police procedural. While there are chapters from the POV of Detective Inspector Iona Chatwin, and these are entertaining enough, it’s the mothers who steal the show. I liked Iona, a lot, and if she has one trait in common with the mothers, it’s that there’s more to her than meets the eye. Still, it wasn’t Iona I was rooting for…

I would love to tell you more, I would love to tell you a lot more, from the tiny gripe I had to everything I loved about The Mothers, but the thing is, I can’t. This is a story you need to experience for yourselves, you need to peel back the layers yourselves and see what’s underneath, and the less I tell you, the better. Just know that The Mothers is extremely compelling, I got sucked in from the start, and I loved the great many secrets the mothers have and their slow unravelling while the women themselves are starting to come apart at the seams as well.

Some excellent characterisation here too. Before long the mothers cease to be characters and have become real people, flawed people caught between a rock and a hard place. You notice yourself rooting for them, although at the same time you know full well they are still keeping secrets from you, and you realise that your faith in them, your hopes for them may very well blow up in your face.

Shocking start to equally shocking finish, I was utterly obsessed with the mothers and The Mothers, and I literally put everything on hold for the need to uncover the truth!

So would I recommend this book? I most definitely would, but don’t take my word for it, check out the other stops on the tour:

This is a fast moving, addictive thriller which I enjoyed very much.

Many women keep in touch with their NCT group for years after the birth of their children. Some make lifelong friends from the close knit group. This group of mothers couldn’t be more diverse but something holds them together. It is a friendship that becomes essential to help out with life’s traumas. Until Bella’s husband goes missing and the friendship is tested to the limits.

This was a thoroughly captivating book. It is told from the perspective of each of the 5 women in the group. Although these chapters are clearly marked there is also quite a lot of going backwards and forwards between the past & present. I very much enjoyed this style of writing. The voices of the women were very clearly defined helping to establish their clear personalities.

The plot is well written and unusual. I had an inkling of some of the plot twists but by no means everything. The narrative hung together well & was easy to read – too easy to read perhaps as I struggled to put it down.

This is a really well written thriller which was unusual and which I enjoyed very much.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.