THE WRONG MOTHER by Sophie Hannah

I can't remember where I first heard about this book. I read lots and lots of magazines, blogs and trade publications and then stack my library account with books that sound interesting.  This one finally popped up in my library queue.  I haven't read many books in the mystery/suspense genre for awhile so this made a nice change of pace.

Sally Thorning is a busy working mom who tries to find time to be all things to all people. During a moment of weakness, Sally take the opportunity of a cancelled business trip to have a mini-vacation from her life.  She meets a man named Mark Bretherick and has a week-long affair.  A year later, Sally hears that a mother and young daughter have been killed in a murder-suicide.  They are the family of Mark Bretherick. As Sally watches the newscast, she sees an interview with Mark Bretherick and realizes that he is not he man she had the affair with.  Someone is lying. 

What follows is a fast-paced mystery-thriller that keeps the reader constantly guessing.  One of the reasons that I do not read many mysteries anymore is that so many of them have become formulaic.  It is easy to guess what will happen. That was not the case with this book. It took many surprising twists and turns. And it is much more than a thriller. Hannah presents three types of mothers in  her book---the workaholic mom who is having second thoughts about motherhood, the selfless mother totally devoted to her child and the mother who tries to straddle both worlds. While weaving these threads into her story, Hannah reveals the difficulties facing modern mothers and the stresses that these roles can place upon them.

BOTTOM LINE: A very readable thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end.  The sections that focus on the police slowed the action down a bit and the ending felt very abrupt.  Overall, this is a good solid entertaining read, though.