The Mother Next Door
A Novel of Suspense
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3.8 • 61 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“A polished and entertaining homage to Big Little Lies and Desperate Housewives… The denouement is bonkers, but satisfying.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“A witty, wicked thriller packed with hidden agendas, juicy secrets, and pitch-perfect satire of the suburban dream.”
—Andrea Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of We Were Never Here
GOOD MOTHERS…
Never show their feelings.
Never spill their secrets.
Never admit to murder.
The annual Halloween block party is the pinnacle of the year on idyllic suburban cul-de-sac Ivy Woods Drive. An influential group of neighborhood moms—known as the Ivy Five—plans the event for months.
Except the Ivy Five has been four for a long time.
When a new mother moves to town, eager to fit in, the moms see it as an opportunity to make the group whole again. This year’s block party should be the best yet... until the women start receiving anonymous messages threatening to expose the quiet neighborhood’s dark past—and the lengths they’ve gone to hide it.
As secrets seep out and the threats intensify, the Ivy Five must sort the loyal from the disloyal, the good from the bad. They’ll do anything to protect their families. But when a twisted plot is revealed, with dangerous consequences, their steady foundation begins to crumble, leaving only one certainty: after this year’s block party, Ivy Woods Drive will never be the same.
“Suspenseful, compulsively readable… Extremely fun to read." —ShelfAwareness
*Don't miss The Weekend Retreat, Tara Laskowski's next novel of suspense. Available now for preorder!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After too many lean, lonely years as a single parent in Philadelphia, journalist Theresa Pressley, the protagonist of this atmospheric if flimsily plotted thriller from Agatha Award finalist Laskowski (One Night Gone), is plunging headfirst into the opportunities awaiting her and her teen daughter in Ivy Woods, an affluent, seemingly idyllic Washington, D.C., suburb, where her new husband just became high school principal. But what Theresa will discover only gradually about her formidably polished neighbors, locally famous for the Halloween block party they stage each year, is that Kendra McCaul, nicknamed Queen Bee, and her court may be hiding skeletons far scarier than those swaying from the cul-de-sac's trees. And as suggested by their response to the anonymous threats that Kendra and crew begin receiving weeks before the Woods' big night, there's little the "Ivy Hive" would balk at to keep them buried. The suspense builds as Theresa's curiosity, coupled with some explosive secrets of her own, increasingly put her and her family in jeopardy, but several subsequent twists prove unconvincing. Hopefully, Laskowski will return to form next time.
