Mother Knows Best
A Novel of Suspense
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- $28.99
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- $28.99
Publisher Description
One of POPSUGAR’s Top 15 Medical Thrillers
One of REAL SIMPLE’s 35 Chilling Psychological Thrillers
A mother’s worst nightmare, a chance at redemption, and a deadly secret that haunts a family across the generations—“the psychological thriller everyone will be talking about” (Lisa Scottaline)
There's only room for one mother in this family.
Claire Abrams’s dreams became a nightmare when she passed on a genetic mutation that killed her little boy. Now she wants a second chance to be a mother, and finds it in Robert Nash, a maverick fertility doctor who works under the radar with Jillian Hendricks, a cunning young scientist bent on making her mark—and seducing her boss.
Claire, Robert, and Jillian work together to create the world’s first baby with three genetic parents—an unprecedented feat that could eliminate inherited disease. But when word of their illegal experiment leaks to the wrong person, Robert escapes into hiding with the now-pregnant Claire, leaving Jillian to serve out a prison sentence that destroys her future.
Ten years later, a spunky girl named Abigail begins to understand that all is not right with the reclusive man and woman she knows as her parents. But the family’s problems are only beginning. Jillian, hardened by a decade of jealousy and loss, has returned—and nothing will stop her from reuniting with the man and daughter who should have been hers.
Past, present, and future converge in this mesmerizing psychological thriller from critically acclaimed author Kira Peikoff.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This fascinating psychological thriller from Peikoff (Living Proof) opens with Michael and Claire Burke driving from their home in Garrison, N.Y., with their daughter, fifth-grader Abby, to New York City to visit the Museum of Natural History, the favorite place of Claire's son, Colton, whose death at age eight a decade earlier was caused by a genetic defect in his mitochondrial DNA. Flash back to the period after Colton's death. Claire is terrified to have another child with the same defect, so she and her new husband, Michael, consult a fertility specialist who has been able to produce healthy fetuses by, contrary to federal law, replacing damaged mitochondrial genes. The doctor's in vitro treatment results in Abby's birth, though her parents have never told Abby how she was conceived. Now, Abby has a surprise for her parents, and when they arrive at the museum, Claire is devastated to see that the surprise is J, who lives in her mind "like a bloody knife deep underground." Why Abby's parents have kept her genetic history secret and why Claire fears the mysterious J will keep the reader turning the pages. Peikoff expertly exposes the dark side of contemporary medical science.
