Published by Penguin UK on 20th February 2020

This is an excellent psychological thriller focusing on three families who all come together through their children taking private tuition classes together. Eve is the tutor, she appears to live the perfect life, she has children, a husband and a beautiful big family home. But what this book does well is show you that what appears on the outside is not what is necessarily happening on the inside. Eve actually has a husband who seems to ignore her and a teenage daughter who looks like she might be about to go off the rails. However, A bond soon builds between the children in the tutor group and before long they are happily playing together. The parents also start to connect, in more ways than one, there is Melissa and Paul with their brattish young daughter Izzy and Grace and Martin with their two boys Blake and Charley. Whilst the parents spend time getting to know each other the children seem to have been given a free rein to go wild. But that can only end badly.
All seems to be going well when suddenly tragedy strikes, it is every parents nightmare and panic soon sets in to turn their idyllic worlds upside down. What happens is shocking and tears their worlds apart, it gives you the reader a sudden jolt and whilst there were aspects of the story that I figured out, I was way off on other parts. What I liked about the narrative was that the story is told through the point of view of the three mothers, Eve, Grace and Melissa. Each one is a strong woman who knows her own mind but at the same time each has her own issues to deal with and through their narratives we soon learn how their perfect lives actually really aren’t that perfect at all.
The book deals with violence, trauma and tragedy and the tension that all this builds is immense, and at time unsettling, but I liked that, I liked the edginess of the story. This is a book that picks you up and forces you to hold your breath until it lets you go again. The story telling is superb, so, if you like a good psychological thriller this will not let you down.
