Sally Hepworth | THE MOTHER-IN-LAW

Plot (via Goodreads):

From the moment Lucy met Diana, she was kept at arm's length. Diana is exquisitely polite, but Lucy knows, even after marrying Oliver, that they'll never have the closeness she'd been hoping for.

But who could fault Diana? She was a pillar of the community, an advocate for social justice, the matriarch of a loving family. Lucy had wanted so much to please her new mother-in-law.

That was ten years ago. Now, Diana has been found dead, leaving a suicide note. But the autopsy reveals evidence of suffocation. And everyone in the family is hiding something...

Review:

There's something about a character-driven domestic suspense novel that is just as effective as a fast-paced suspense novel. I loved how this one opened with a death of one of our main characters and then skipped back to alternate perspectives between Lucy and Diana from when they first met up until present time. Hepworth did a brilliant job of not only building these characters from the ground up, but for including a plethora of secondary characters that were dazzling and so much fun to read. One thing I loved was as the novel progressed, I not only found Diana to be someone that I was quickly loving, but also seeing where she is coming from, why she is saying the things she is saying, and getting a deep look into her past and how she became the woman she is up until her death.

The pacing with this novel is something that was not only addictive, but kept me immersed in the story. From what turned into a simpler plot turns dangerously complex and tightly woven throughout the novel. By the end as we got closer to the truth, I was not only nervous, but saddened that the novel was coming to a close. A twisted and devastatingly bittersweet finale left me not only shocked, but made my emotional roller coaster so worth it. It was really hard not to become unbelievably invested in this story and these characters and getting a look into each perspective just added to the pacing and sensationalized the story for me. Not only complaint when it comes to this wonderfully told tale and the writing talent of Sally Hepworth.

Special thanks to St. Martins Press for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 4.5/5