The Good Mother: A tense psychological thriller with a shocking twist
‘Oh. My. Word. This is a one sitting read kind of book. The kind with a twist that will have you gasping out loud.’ – Katherine Sunderland, BibliomaniacThe greatest bond. The darkest betrayal.Susan wakes up alone in a room she doesn’t recognise, with no memory of how she got there. She only knows that she is trapped, and her daughter is missing.The relief that engulfs her when she hears her daughter’s voice through the wall is quickly replaced by fear.The person who has imprisoned her has her daughter, too.Devising a plan to keep her daughter safe, Susan begins to get closer to her unknown captor. And suddenly, she realises that she has met him before.The Good Mother is a dark and disturbing psychological thriller for fans of C L Taylor, Kathryn Croft and S K Tremayne.Read what people are saying about The Good Mother‘if you like psychological thrillers this one will keep you guessing till the end’ – Elaine Makri, Goodreads‘5*: gripping from beginning to end’ – Shirley Jones, Goodreads‘Nothing in this story is quite what it appears’ – Rosemary Smith, Goodreads‘From the start this was chilling and made my heart beat extra fast. A psychological thriller with lots of tension…Could not put it down! No spoilers but highly recommend it. 5*****’ – Laurel Cherkas, Goodreads‘Not much keeps me awake until 2am, but my goodness, this brilliant psychological thriller did just that!’ – Philippa McKenna, Goodreads‘I loved this book…I couldn't read it fast enough.A real page turner’ – Aarti Shah, Goodreads‘So cleverly written that I had no inkling as to how the tale would unfold.’ – Melanie Hughes, Goodreads‘Lots of twists and turns and shocks along the way and the ending packs a real punch!’ ‘ Fiona McCormick, Goodreads
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The greatest bond. The darkest betrayal.
Susan wakes up alone in a room she doesn’t recognise, with no memory of how she got there. She only knows that she is trapped, and her daughter is missing.
The relief that engulfs her when she hears her daughter’s voice through the wall is quickly replaced by fear.
Because the person who has imprisoned her has her daughter, too.
Devising a plan to keep her daughter safe, Susan begins to get closer to her unknown captor. And suddenly, she realises that she has met him before.
The Good Mother
A. L. Bird
HQ
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2016
Copyright © A. L. Bird 2016
A. L. Bird asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
E-book Edition © June 2016 ISBN: 9781474049566
Version date: 2018-09-20
A.L. BIRD
lives in London, where she divides her time between writing and working as a lawyer. The Good Mother is her major psychological thriller for HQ Digital, the fourth novel she’s written for the imprint. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London, and is also an alumna of the Faber Academy ‘Writing a Novel’ course, which she studied under Richard Skinner. Amy is a member of the Crime Writers’Association. For updates on her writing follow her on Twitter, @ALBirdWriter
I am grateful to everyone who has given me the time, support and encouragement to write this novel. My wonderful editor Clio Cornish, who knows what I’m trying to write even before I’ve written it; my super-savvy agent Amanda Preston of LBA for her off-the-cuff creative brilliance and industry insight; my loyal family for the hours of childcare that enabled me to be closeted away in this new world; to Dr Abigail Crutchlow for her advice on characters (any straying from psychological truth is due to my artistic licence, not your input) and of course my readers, for coming back for more. Thank you.
And to my little one – welcome. May I be the best mother to you, always.
Contents
The girl gets into the car that’s waiting for her. She looks over her shoulder first, like he’s told her to, to check Mummy isn’t watching. Would Mummy really mind? She can’t be sure. But he seems to think so. And he knows best, right? So she does the covert glance then slings her school bag into the back seat, like all the other times. He holds his cheek towards her for a kiss, which she dutifully bestows. Then he starts the engine with a vroom. Familiar buildings pass by. Buses on their way to places she recognises: Muswell Hill Broadway; Barnet (The Spires); North Finchley. There are a couple of kids from school. She raises her hand to wave but the man, seeing her, says, ‘Best not.’ So she lowers her hand and plays with the hem of her skirt, gazing absently out of the window.
Gradually, the territory becomes less familiar. The other man, the man they are going to meet, always insists on meeting outside of her home area. Says it’s safer that way. She hopes he’ll buy her a hot chocolate again. That was nice. Lots of whipped cream. Mummy always says whipped cream is bad: ‘You’ll end up big-boned. No one wants to be big-boned.’ The girl commented that the women at Mummy’s cupcake studio don’t seem big-boned. And they have lots of cream. ‘That’s because they spend a lot of time in the bathroom after each session,’ Mummy explained. That didn’t make much sense. But still, after the last visit, she hung round in the bathroom for a good ten minutes, so that the cream didn’t invade her bones and make them puff up.
