The Good Mother by Kim Lock

The Good Mother by Kim Lock
Buy The Good Mother by Kim Lock at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: General Fiction
Reviewer: Zoe Morris
Summary: An absorbing read, this book starts with the end and works back to see how we all ended up there. Relationships of all kind battle to survive in this small Australian town.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 400	Date: March 2017
Publisher: Sphere
ISBN: 978-0751565300
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As a black girl adopted by white parents in rural Australia, Fairlie herself has enough going on to warrant a story, but this book is not about her. It's about her friend, Jenna. Jenna, wife of Ark, mother to Henry, recently found dead in her bathtub.

For Fairlie, Jenna's death is more than just a horrific loss of a friendship than began before they can remember. It's confusing, baffling even. Fairlie had no clue Jenna was unhappy to this degree, and her husband can shed little light on the mater either. It will take some digging, some investigation and maybe a little luck, but Fairlie is determined to work out what happened, what signs she missed.

This story unfolds beautifully, with revelations from the past and present. We follow Jenna back over the years, seeing things through her eyes, quickly understanding what her life was like. It takes time but, much like the continued drain on her sanity, little things add up and eventually snowball uncontrollably towards the finish. Repeated, isolated incidents not longer seem all that isolated, and the compound effect is a mental state so fragile anything is possible.

There are so many relationships to juggle in this story, those between friends, partners and parents and their children. Jenna was a good mother by anyone's estimation, but her son Henry is now motherless, and it is in part because of her actions. Was she putting his best interests first, ahead of her own? The question remains: is it possible to love your child too much?

This is a plod along, peaceful book but one that still holds many surprises. Fairlie, plump, messy, unmotivated Fairlie, is an unlikely heroine but she must rise to the occasion if she is to help out her friend when she herself cannot do it. I thought it was an excellent read, elegantly plotting the before and the aftermath, weaving in important letters as well as narrative. The constant changes of voice and time kept me hooked as you are yanked away just as you start to put together the story, and for this reason I could not put it down for long, drawn back as I was into the gripping lives of the two girls and their families.

I would like to thank the publishers for sending us a copy to review. It reminded me of another favourite Australian author and her excellent mystery The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty which also well worth a read.

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You can read more book reviews or buy The Good Mother by Kim Lock at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Good Mother by Kim Lock at Amazon.com.

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