The Perfect Mother
A Novel
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3.9 • 812 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
An addictive psychological thriller about a group of women whose lives become unexpectedly connected when one of their newborns goes missing.
A night out. A few hours of fun. That’s all it was meant to be.
They call themselves the May Mothers—a group of new moms whose babies were born in the same month. Twice a week, they get together in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park for some much-needed adult time.
When the women go out for drinks at the hip neighborhood bar, they want a fun break from their daily routine. But on this hot Fourth of July night, something goes terrifyingly wrong: one of the babies is taken from his crib. Winnie, a single mom, was reluctant to leave six-week-old Midas with a babysitter, but her fellow May Mothers insisted everything would be fine. Now he is missing. What follows is a heart-pounding race to find Midas, during which secrets are exposed, marriages are tested, and friendships are destroyed.
Thirteen days. An unexpected twist. The Perfect Mother is a "true page turner." —B.A. Paris, author of Behind Closed Doors
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We had to force ourselves to step away from Aimee Molloy’s debut thriller. The story follows a group of young Brooklyn moms who meet twice a week for drinks to relieve the stress of new parenthood. When single mom Winnie's six-week-old son is kidnapped, the group launches a rogue investigation, bringing their own secrets and insecurities to the surface. Molloy reveals each character to us through brief vignettes—and uses the crew’s sleep-deprived amateur sleuthing to spin a suspenseful tale that's also a tart critique of modern motherhood. Scandal’s Kerry Washington is set to star in the film adaptation. We can’t wait!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this promising first novel from nonfiction bestseller Molloy (However Long the Night), the May Mothers, a parenting group, gather at a Brooklyn bar for an adults-only Fourth of July celebration. The outing's organizers Nell Mackey, Colette Yates, and Francie Givens are intent on showing harried single mom Winnie Ross a good time, so they arrange for Nell's nanny, Alma, to watch Winnie's son, Midas, and delete the baby monitor app from Winnie's phone. Drinking commences and Winnie wanders off, leaving her phone and house key with Nell, who misplaces them. Shortly thereafter, Alma calls Nell to report that Midas is missing. When the NYPD fails to find him, the media turns its attention to Winnie and the other May Mothers, prompting Nell, Colette, and Francie to launch their own increasingly reckless investigation. The mystery of Midas's disappearance may be the skeleton on which Molloy's plot hangs, but it's her characters' anxieties that give the story life and substance. Molloy doesn't fully earn her book's big twist, but her clever narrative structure heightens tension and creates uncertainty while spotlighting the solitary struggles of motherhood.
Customer Reviews
Enjoyed it
It’s not the usual, “see it coming from a mile away”, sort of story/plot. It kept me guessing and wondering to the end.
Perfect mother
Lost me at times but all around good book. I enjoyed it
Riveting!
I read this straight through unable to put it down. I was rapt with the chaos, suspense and the angst that followed that single moment when all of these lives changed and the aftermath of its destruction would impact them all profoundly and each manifest the distraught, despair and grief they feel some can express themselves and cope better than others but when something so sinister and tragic happen and your lives and circumstances are so parallel to one another it’s not only easy to resonate and have immense empathy for the victims and all doing their very best to fights out what did happen and who was actually responsible for this. No one wants to believe the very worst possible outcome in this situation but it’s been far too long now to keep the faith that anything other horrific can come from this one decision that was made that send such a paralyzing shockwave through their community all will do their own digging, so many different ways for nearly every one to come under question and the guilt the abject loss and feeling they wished they could have done more and as the clues and more of the facts unravel each women and man will not be able to remove themselves from the glaring allegations and rumors as well as blatant disregard for the truth and getting to the facts because these people are hyper charged with hormones and emotional distress from the whole incredible brutally savage act someone has done that’s the cruelest most unthinkable nightmare for all mankind especially parents more importantly the MOTHERS.