From the moment Lucy met her husband’s mother, she knew she wasn’t the wife Diana had envisioned for her perfect son. Exquisitely polite, friendly, and always generous, Diana nonetheless kept Lucy at arm’s length despite her desperate attempts to win her over. And as a pillar in the community, an advocate for female refugees, and a woman happily married for decades, no one had a bad word to say about Diana…except Lucy.

That was five years ago. 

Now, Diana is dead, a suicide note found near her body claiming that she longer wanted to live because of the cancer wreaking havoc inside her body. 

But the autopsy finds no cancer. 

It does find traces of poison, and evidence of suffocation. 

Who could possibly want Diana dead? Why was her will changed at the eleventh hour to disinherit both of her children, and their spouses? And what does it mean that Lucy isn’t exactly sad she’s gone?

I loved, loved, loved this book! It seems that all Lucy ever wanted from her Mother-in-Law, Diana, was to be accepted and loved. Lucy misses the feeling of having her own mother in her life and sought to have a loving relationship with her husband Ollie’s mom.

But Diana was never a “warm and fuzzy” kind of mom. She was tough as nails and successful despite of having to work hard her entire life to build an empire from the ground up. Diana is immersed in her charity work and she feels strongly that giving her children hand-outs will leave them short of knowing what “working hard for your money” feels like.

But… I think Diana got a bad wrap. Being told from multiple perspectives, the reader got to know Diana and her hearts desires. Yes, she was hell-bent on tough love. Yes, she was rich. Yes, she didn’t freely give wads of money to her grown children whenever they had a business idea or desired another opportunity in life. She loved her family, her husband, and her work.

Did she go too far though? After her husband Tom died, she began to rethink things. Here’s where it got real hairy. This story just got better and better!

I loved the plot twists, the flawed characters, and the drama of it all!!! A fast paced and twisty story, it will have you reading through all hours of the night!

Sally Hepworth is the bestselling author of The Secrets of Midwives (2015), The Things We Keep (2016) The Mother’s Promise (2017), The Family Next Door (2018) and The Mother In Law (April 2019). Sally’s books have been labelled “enchanting” by The Herald Sun, “smart and engaging” by Publisher’s Weekly, and New York Times bestselling authors Liane Moriarty and Emily Giffin have praised Sally’s novels as “women’s fiction at its finest” and “totally absorbing”.

Sally’s novels are available worldwide in English and have been translated into 10+ languages.

Sally lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and three children.

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