If you enjoy Liane Moriarty’s books like Big Little Lies or The Husband’s Secret, you need to read Sally Hepworth’s The Mother-In-Law! (Side note: My favorite Moriarty book is What Alice Forgot!) Hepworth writes in a similar style to Moriarty, in that you know right away that someone has died.
Then the author takes you on a wild ride as you take a deeper look at all the characters and the drama that surrounds them. This book kept me guessing until the end!
I listened to the audiobook version of this book on Libby. The reader was excellent and there was also a short interview with the author at the end of the book. She talked about how there is this notion of the dreaded mother-inlaw.
Some people cringe at the mere mention of her. It’s commonly believed that mothers-in-law are impossible to get along with and that they get a thrill from making their daughters-in-law miserable. But Hepworth thought, “surely they can’t all be bad people” and she wanted to explore that idea further.
Diana and Tom are Lucy’s in-laws. At first she can’t understand how two people who seem so completely opposite could end up together. Tom is generous, friendly and welcoming from the beginning. Though Diana is polite and sophisticated, she always seems stand-offish and a bit cold. Diana doesn’t believe it does her children any good to just give them what they want. She believes they should have to work for it and earn it, even if it means struggling or suffering for it or even never getting it at all.
Lucy grew up without her mother and she wanted nothing more than to have a good relationship with her mother-in-law. But after countless apparent rejections and strange gestures she just can’t make sense of…like Diana giving away the stuffed bear that Tom had gotten for their first grandchild and giving Lucy a raw chicken instead, Lucy gives up on that relationship.
Then Diana is found dead from an apparent suicide. But the evidence isn’t quite adding up and countless twists and turns soon follow. As the story progresses, you get to see several situations from different perspectives. Are the characters and relationships really what they appear to be or have you misjudged them all along?
This is Sally’s fifth novel. Her other titles include, The Family Next Door, The Mother’s Promise, The Things We Keep, and The Secrets of Midwives. The Yankton Community owns all her of titles in various formats, including books, CD books, and e-books on Libby. I can’t wait to read another title by this author and I hope you check her out, too!
