Loving Mothers – Miranda Smith

Our whole neighborhood is desperately searching for sixteen-year-old Shelby: my own daughter’s best friend. But I know my daughter is lying about the night Shelby disappeared. And a mother will do anything to protect her child…

Hickory Hills is the perfect place to raise a family. Everyone knows everyone. Sometimes, that’s a bad thing.

The morning after the Halloween party, the word spreads from house to house, each resident gasping at the news, each mother holding their child tighter. Shelby has gone missing.

My daughter should be distraught, but she’s claiming they weren’t even friends anymore. When I go to talk to her, I hear her giggling on the phone with Shelby’s boyfriend.

And then I find her Halloween costume, stuffed into a bag in her closet, covered in blood.

I will do anything to protect my daughter. I will turn this community upside down. I will blame someone else’s child if I have to.

After all, I have secrets of my own…

Review

My god, this was juicy! I absolutely love suburban drama, they are one of my favourite subgenres of thrillers.

The peaceful and idyllic family atmosphere of Hickory Hills suddenly gets disturbed by a tragedy – one of their own appears to be missing. Worst of all, it’s someone’s child, a barely adult teenager.

Mary’s daughter, Grace, seems to be the focus of the investigation in her bff’s disappearance, but as well as all know, a mother will stop at nothing to protect their own.

The plot actually reminded me a little of A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins, even though I have yet to read that one fully.

There are a lot of characters but the writer does a good job at giving everyone their own voice, and the multiple POV chapters make it easier to not get confused at all.

Twisty, suspenseful, and full of drama, just how I like my books.