“She’s not my mum…”
When Jess hears these four words, whispered by a young girl in her local park, it sets her mind into overdrive. Why would Daisy lie? What might her mother, Morag, be hiding? Jess is determined to find out…
What’s it about?
Secrets. Suspicions. Trauma.
From early on, in chapters subtitled ‘Before’, there are question marks over who readers should trust. Both Jess and Morag clearly have their secrets, and no one else shows any interest in Jess’s suspicions, which only deepen as the two women repeatedly encounter each other, both accidentally and deliberately. Adding fuel to the growing fire, Morag suspects Jess of spying on her, and decides to adhere to the old adage of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.
Meanwhile, we meet DI Mike Ferry, in chapters subtitled ‘Now’, who is investigating a brutal murder with a witness who sounds rather familiar. It appears that Daisy’s whisper has led to a murder, but the who and why is deliberately kept opaque as Hunter alternates chapters between the two female first person narratives and the third person narration following the DI’s progress.
What’s it like?
Highly engaging and intensely dramatic, albeit rather unrealistic in places. Why on earth didn’t Jess simply ask Morag about those four little words? Surely anyone faced with such an odd comment, who then kept encountering the mother and child, would ask, even if they fully expected the other person to deny everything and asked purely to see the reaction of the suspect.
Similarly, Morag’s decision to inveigle her family into Jess’ life didn’t convince. Surely, if you are so suspicious of someone, you would stay away.
Finally, I thought Jess’ disintegration not justified by her condition as established by the concluding pages, which actually then emphasised the oddity of her actions and made the scenes with the psychologist feel reduced to a very blunt plot mechanism (make sure Jess is not fit to explain what happened so we can delay the big reveal!)
All that said, I enjoyed reading this and stayed up far too late to read the final pages! It genuinely made my heart beat faster.
Final thoughts
‘Mummy’s Little Secret’ is a highly readable psychological thriller.
I’ve seen it described in various places as ‘part police procedural’ but there’s very little ‘procedure’: the ‘Now’ chapters serve primarily – and effectively! – to heighten the suspense (what on earth happened in that house?!?) rather than to develop a true investigation. I did like the plot / character development of DI Mike Ferry and DC Polly Viceroy as there was enough to make them interesting without distracting from the main storyline.
I look forward to reading other books by M. A. Hunter.