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The Wrong Mother
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The Wrong Mother
Unavailable
The Wrong Mother
Audiobook13 hours

The Wrong Mother

Written by Sophie Hannah

Narrated by Elizabeth Sastre

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

A chilling, compulsively readable novel of psychological suspense from the author of Little Face and The Carrier

Sally Thorning is watching the news with her husband when she hears a name she never thought she'd hear again: Mark Bretherick.

It's a name she shouldn't recognize. Last year, a work trip Sally had planned was canceled at the last minute. Desperate for a break from juggling her job and a young family, Sally didn't tell her husband that the trip had fallen through. Instead, she treated herself to a secret vacation in a remote hotel. While she was there, Sally met a man-Mark Bretherick. All the details are the same: where he lives, his job, his wife Geraldine and daughter Lucy. Except that the photograph on the news is of a man Sally has never seen before. And Geraldine and Lucy Bretherick are both dead...

With the international bestseller Little Face, Sophie Hannah established herself as a striking new voice in psychological suspense. The Wrong Mother, a riveting exploration of a mother's unspeakable betrayal, confirms her reputation as a master of the form. 

LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 29, 2009
ISBN9781101196007
Unavailable
The Wrong Mother
Author

Sophie Hannah

Sophie Hannah is the internationally bestselling author of 9 psychological thrillers, which have been published in more than 20 countries and adapted for television. Her novel The Carrier won the 2013 Specsavers National Book Awards Crime Thriller of the Year. Sophie is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, and as a poet has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize.

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Reviews for The Wrong Mother

Rating: 3.3924914675767917 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

293 ratings40 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In this entertaining psychological thriller by Sophie Hannah, Sally Thorning sees in the news a story about the death of a woman and the woman's 5-year-old daughter, the result of an apparent murder-suicide. What catches Sally's attention is not the story itself but the mention of the husband and father in this family - Mark Bretherick. One year ago Sally had a one-week fling with Mark Bretherick. Only this man on the news is not the Mark Bretherick she met one year ago. So who is the real Mark Bretherick? If the man on the news is the real Mark Bretherick, then who did she have a fling with one year ago? And now Mark Bretherick's wife and daughter are dead.I enjoyed this tautly written novel that kept me guessing the whole time. An intriguing plot, sufficiently developed main and peripheral characters, and a doozy of a twist (or should I say multiple twists) at the end kept me riveted. Even though this was the first that I'd read of Hannah's Spilling CID series, there was no need to read the previous two books in the series in order to understand this one. It stands alone just fine.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I found this book to be enjoyable but an equally frustrating read. When Hannah sticks to the main plot it's impossible to put down. Unfortunately, there are many superfluous characters and sub-plots that do nothing to improve the story. The romantic storyline is confusing and uninteresting, only complicating an already cluttered story. The ending is certainly surprising and equally far-fetched. Overall, it was a mostly satisfying but forgettable read.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Confusing. Too many British expression and terms used. Would not recommend to my book club friends.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Third in the series is the charm! Great twisty plot involving mistaken identities, multiple murders, and miserable moms. The undercurrent of the difficulties between co-workers Charlie (female) and Simon (male, and whatever went wrong with your childhood?) continue and add both tension and relief to the main plot. As usual, Snowman is around to infuriate and ingratiate. This is a fantastic series and happily there are more to come.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Point of Rescue is another excellent novel of psychological suspense by author Sophie Hannah and the third entry in her Spilling Detective series. Once again, as in other Hannah books that I have read, I disliked the main character, Sally, but nevertheless, the story had a stranglehold on me and I couldn’t put it down.A year ago when a business trip was cancelled at the last minute, Sally didn’t tell her family but instead took herself on a spa retreat. She met a man called Mark Bretherick and the two of them spent the week together. Now that same man’s name is being broadcast on the evening news as his wife has murdered their young daughter and killed herself. Only the bereaved husband on television is not the same man that Sally spent time with. This intricately constructed mystery is original, compelling and unpredictable. By trying to cover her own indiscretions, Sally blunders into a dark situation of assumed identities, abductions, betrayals and murder. The Point of Rescue was a gripping read with plenty of twists to keep the reader guessing and the pages turning.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    There's a really good twist right at the end! The mystery itself was a page-turner.

    I just wished there was more about Simon and his girlfriend/fiancee though. That storyline left me wanting to know more about them and their relationship.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hannah throws the reader directly into the story without the pleased-to-meet-you introductions to so and so. What a confident and risky thing to do...but it works really well. The novel is refreshingly unconventional but comprehensible and sharp with lots of interesting stuff going on between many characters. And I especially like that the police don't all hang about in pubs or bars for half the book. Very enjoyable; I look forward to reading more of Hannah's novels.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Zu viele Charaktere, die einen manchmal verwirren. Man verliert etwas den Überblick.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Sophie Hannah writes a mystery series featuring two very messed up detectives. Charlie is prone to shooting her mouth off and behaving impulsively while Simon is so repressed and angry he can barely speak. Strangely, these two work well together, although their relationship is a bit volatile. In this third installment, they aren't even working together, Charlie having transferred to another department. A woman and her child have been found dead by the husband. It appears to be a murder-suicide, but questions remain. Well, while the others are eager to wrap things up, Simon has doubts. Meanwhile, another woman has had an argument with her babysitter, culminating when someone pushes her into the path of an oncoming bus. She manages to get away with only a few scrapes, but she's shaken by the encounter. She's further upset when she sees on the news the story of the murder-suicide and recognizes the name of the members of the family, but the grieving father is not the man she knew by that name. Sally Thorning is works full time and has two very small children. She's tired all the time and a bit cranky with it. She's determined to find out what's going on, but she can't tell anyone. The man claiming to be Mark Breckenridge is not the man she knew by that name and with whom she had a brief fling not that long ago. Hannah doesn't fetishize motherhood. Her young mothers are cranky and impatient and dream of a quiet night alone. She writes somewhat like Ruth Rendell, with that dark edge, although Rendell's cops were never quite as messed up as any of the detectives here.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book has many interwoven thoughts. I felt it was well written. I did have some problems keeping track of some of the minor police officers.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    There are few things as satisfying as watching a well plotted novel come together.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Should we judge a book by its cover? I ask because in this case I hated the cover – absolutely loathed it. And you know what? I wasn’t too fond of the book either (although to be fair I didn’t hate it).What drew me to this story was the bit about how Sally took a secret vacation when her work trip got canceled. I thought that sounded like it could have some interesting potential for disaster, and that the murder mystery might be a good twist to the story as well. This was all before I saw the cover, but since I was interested in the storyline I decided to check the book out from the library anyway regardless of the horrific blood-dripping tub image.The mystery, while not at all what I had anticipated, was actually not that bad. There were some interesting twists and turns to the plot, and the true identity of the murderer was a complete surprise.There were aspects of the story that I didn’t like. One of these was the journal written by the suicidal/murdered mom. At first some of her disgruntlement with her child and motherhood seemed understandable, but then it quickly crossed the line into disturbing. At a certain point her thoughts were just too difficult and uncomfortable to read and I didn’t want to spend any more time inside the mind of someone so disturbed and selfish. After the first few journal entries I skimmed the rest. (I did finish the book though, just not all of the journal entries.)I got what the author was trying to do – show a continuum of dissatisfaction with motherhood. She allows you to sympathize with the normal struggles that most moms feel, but then takes you across the line into cruel and inappropriate thoughts. It didn’t take long for me to lose all sympathy for that character though, and ultimately I wasn’t willing to invest my time in her.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This was a very strange book. It was difficult to get into as there was much rambling and the story line just did not hang together for much of the first half of the book. Then as the mystery evolved it became quite interesting and made the reader want to know what would happen next. After getting thoroughly involved in the story, it just ended leaving the reader hanging. I did not care for this book and would not recommend it.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Two memos to self after finishing book: 1) Don't choose a book based on cover plot synopsis; 2) Don't take a book like this on vacation.Plot could have been terrific. Execution was terrible. Characters implausible. Don't read!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Have just finished this book and if I had to describe it in one word it would be disappointing. I came across this book by chance and read very good reviews of it, along with details that this was to be turned into an ITV mini-series. I love crime thrillers and always want to read books before seeing the TV shows/movies so had to buy a copy. From the synopsis, this should have been a very good read: Sally a busy mum, takes a secret break from family life at a spa and has a brief affair with a man called Mark Bretherick. A year later when watching the news with her husband, she hears that Bretherwick's wife and daughter are both dead. However, the picture of Mark Bretherick on the news, is not the man that Sally had an affair with. Sounds gripping, right? Wrong! I just couldn’t get into the characters. They did not seem real and Sally and her husband were quite annoying. Without meaning to give too much away, how can Sally, who has been held prisoner, escape, then nip back to the place she is being held to have a shower and change of clothes before escaping again? And how can her husband just accept that Sally knew the man that had abducted her and honestly believe they spent a secret week at a spa ‘just talking’ and did not have an affair?! The plot line seems to jump from character to character making it confusing and difficult to follow and the two main police characters investigating these crimes, Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer seemed very fake. There was a constant reference to something happening the year before, but no further details, which was very frustrating. I have since found that this is the third crime book written by Sophie Hannah, and is actually a series based around Simon and Charlie. However, none of the books hint at this in the synopsis and neither does Hannah’s own website. If I had known this, then I would have read the first two books before this one and maybe I would understand the history behind Simon and Charlie a bit better. But with the way this has been written, something inside me says I won’t……..I really wanted to like this book but it was a let down. I may try another Hannah book from the library, but I certainly wont buy it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Very interesting mystery. The ending was incredible and I didn't see it coming. In fact, I was pretty confused throughout the book. Hannah's transitions between characters is too quick for my liking and I lost track of who was who.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very good, if kinda the mystery equivalent of a trashy romance.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Sally is a burnt out working mom who is asked to go on a business trip…the business trip gets cancelled and Sally goes on the trip anyways…to get away and have a break. While she is there she has a weeklong affair with someone who calls himself Mark Bretherick. An entire year passes by and neither of them speaks to each other or see each other even though they live fairly close by. Then there is a murder, it is the murder of Mark's wife and child. Sally sees Mark on the news but he is not the same man she had her affair with. All the details of his life are exactly the same...and his dead wife is a look alike of Sally. Sally then notices that someone is following her and trying to kill her. At the same time she is trying to cover her own tracks as she does not want her husband to find out about the affair so she takes things into her own hands. There are various story lines going on with all of the characters that are involved. Very suspenseful and full of surprises.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Young mother has a fling while away from home and it comes back to haunt her. Another mother and daughter are killed and at first it looks like a murder suicide;
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the disadvantage of being British: An American woman could have gunned this man down.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sally and Nick have two young children and they both work hard. The year before, Sally was feeling the strain of juggling motherhood and her career, all the multi-tasking; she was desperate for a break from it all. When a business trip fell through, she didn’t tell her husband. Instead she went off anyway to a hotel, looking forward to a week of spas and sleep. In the bar, she met a man - a considerate one, a man who seemed to understand her needs, and they had a week long daytime affair. Revived, she returned to work, but life carries on and she still gets stressed …"There’s probably nothing important that I’ve forgotten, but it would be nice to be certain, as I always used to be. Now that I have two small children, my work has an added resonance: every time I talk or write about Venice’s lagoon losing dangerous amounts of the sediment it needs to keep it healthy, I find myself identifying with the damn thing. Two strong currents called Jake and Zoe, aged four and two, are sluicing important things from my brain that I will never be able to retrieve, and replacing them with thoughts about Barbie and Calpol. Perhaps I should write a paper, complete with scientific diagrams, arguing that my mind has silted up and needs dredging, and send it to Nick, who has a talent for forgetting he has a home life while he is at work. He is always advising me to follow his example."At home the news is full of a gruesome double death – presumed suicide of a mother and daughter. Their names are familiar – they’re the family of the man she had an affair with – but the man on the TV is not Mark Bretherick!This is the setup for Sophie Hannah’s third novel, another dark and devilishly ingenious psychological thriller. I’m not going to talk about the main plot any more, it’s complicated and I don’t want to give any spoilers. Suffice to say, it’s complicated and chilling, and mothers and fathers reading it will get little twinges of guilt when they recognise situations within in which they could have been better parents themselves at some time. Toiling away in the background are the Spilling constabulary – they are the constant in Hannah’s novels. Back again are detectives Charlie and Simon, who have a long-running on-off relationship, which is complicated by her being a sergeant and him just a constable. Although the crime is the star, they provide a satisfying and grounding backdrop to the main event.I like to read novels with interlinking story arcs in order, and Sophie’s third was the best yet for me, totally unputdownable as usual! I’m looking forward to great anticipation to her next books now.(8.5/10) I bought this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is a thriller all about the choices that we make and the consequences of those decisions. Sally Thorning is a working wife and mother of two children who made a decision a year ago that is now coming back to haunt her. Because Sally lied to her husband and went on what was supposed to be a "business trip", but was in fact a vacation away from her everyday life. On her weekend away Sally met a man named Mark Bretherick...the name of a man who is now on television because his wife and daughter have been murdered. But the Mark Bretherick on television isn't the Mark that Sally met and spent time with while she was away.How seriously creepy is that?? Sally goes on a trip alone, meets and has an affair with a man, and then goes back to her every day life. Except that the man she an affair with isn't the man he claimed to be and now Sally doesn't know who she spent the weekend with. Plus, there are creepy things happening to her and Sally is starting to realize that someone is out to get her. This book was a definite page turner for me. On one hand, I had a bit of a hard time relating to Sally. Not that I don't understand the need for alone time but the decisions she made on her weekend away weren't the smartest ones. But the dislike for her affair was immediately set aside as different things began happening to her that showed Sally to be in danger. The mystery aspect of the book was very compelling and I didn't figure out who the "bad" guy was until the end. And trust me, I was turning pages and reading as fast as possible trying to see what was going to happen next. My only complaint was the ending was a bit bleh and by that I mean that I wasn't very impressed with it. It was an okay ending but nothing amazing. It was still a really good, suspenseful read though. This book definitely made me think about the every day decisions that we make and how it can affect our lives.Bottom Line: A good thriller and an author that I plan to read more of!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Psychological thriller. Sarah, Mark, Lucy and Geraldine
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have given this book a five because it is a chilling riveting read that simply could not be any better. In it's genre, it is superb. Escapism at it's best. While spending a week away from her husband and children at a resort, Sally Thorning meets a man and has a brief affair. A year later she hears his name on the news. His wife and child are dead but the picture of him is someone else. Why did the man she met use his name? And why is she being followed? Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A unique take on parenthood, presented distinctly from the woman's perspective. Elegant, slow pacing, gorgeous language and dialogue--and frequent plot surprises. I wanted to step on the accelerator a few times, but then would hit a passage that was compelling. The police are distinctly human, and take their time in solving the mystery. So it's probably more accurate than more linear mysteries. Men may find the women's self-analysis either compelling or fatuous.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book started out fairly strong, had my interest and then dithered on for way too long and got more and more unbelievable, by the end I didn't care what happened, just wanted it to FINISH !
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Very, very slow - didn't care what happened at the end - and I was only in the middle!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Wrong Mother is a complex psychological thriller. The characters are drawn more richly than in most books of this genre. I could relate very well to the main character, harried not-quite-a-supermom Sally Thorning, and struggled along with Sally, trying to figure out what was going on. I did not figure it out until very near the end. Highly recommended page turner.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This book put me in a bad mood! All the talk from mothers who express their deepest darkest annoyances with their kids and the loss of independence just made me scream at my own kids, like some sort of bookish influenza. And the plot itself--the mystery part--a little loose around the edges and unbelievable. Was this a mystery or a novel? I couldn't tell but I don't think I particularly enjoyed either.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I usually have at least 3 books going at a time as a matter of habit. But once I got a hundred pages or so in to Sophie Hannah’s THE WRONG MOTHER, it was all I wanted to read. The story centers around Sally Thorning who in a moment of selfishness escapes on an indulgent vacation and extramarital affair. It is only months later she discovers her lover is not who he said he is, and her indiscretion will have life threatening consequences beyond her imagination. The story shifts between Sally, the police investigating the crime, and excerpts of a diary detailing the day to day life of murder victim who is finding mothering her young child excruciating. Shifting narrators is one of the most overused literary devices today and it is to Hannah’s credit that the reader barely notices. Instead the story was so compelling and lively that these characters inspire and evoke emotion from the very first to the very last page. Although readers are kept in the dark throughout much of this murder mystery and only doled out tiny fairly useless clues, the book stayed thoroughly suspenseful. Hannah’s deft exploration of modern motherhood and its expectations deliver a scarily relatable must read for all crime, mystery and literary fiction fans.