Only a Mother

by Elisabeth Carpenter

[zooloo1983]

Oh my god! How have I not read anything by Elisabeth Carpenter before! I have 11 Missed calls on my Kindle and I need to get 99 Red Balloons. But bloody hell, I need to sort this out pronto! I mean WOW what a book!

This book has put me through the wringer completely. I have been wrought with fear, fear what is going to come but it has caused something to happen in my eyes. I mean this liquid came out of my eyes a bit when reading this book and I am sure at one point she may have caused me a bit of heart failure. So when I say WOW about this book, I say it breathlessly as she has knocked me for six.

This book shows us what it could be like if we were Erica, the mother of a convicted killer, what lengths would we go to to protect our loved ones? Once her son goes to prison, she becomes a shell of a person. She is ostracised from the community, the things people say and do just broke my heart. It was all so realistic and harrowing because you know these things probably do happen every day.

The story is told between Erica, her excitement of having her boy Craig home and both their adjustments when he is home. She has always believed that he is innocent, but is he? Will things be the same? Will she still recognise that sweet boy she loved seventeen years ago? But we are also told the story by Luke, the reporter who wrote the articles regarding the murders seventeen years ago. He is trying to figure out why Craig was not convicted for both murders whilst juggling his home life.

Erica is the star here, fraught with the guilt of what happened in the past, her actions on that night. Did she behave correctly? Now with another girl going missing, can she rectify her previous transgressions?

I would have finished this in one sitting, had I not had to get up for work today. The way this book has been written is just addictive. Erica and Luke had a story that had to be told, a crime to be solved and resolution to be achieved. This book is tense, but the main focus is not on the missing girl nor the previous murder, but the every day with Erica. I knew the twist that would be coming, but it when everything played out it was shocking. The darkness inside of someone, the shock of their behaviour and emptiness of their emotions was just so harrowing in this book and quite frankly shocking.

This is another book I have read where it is so character driven and I loved it. The characters in this book, help build the world and they drive us forward, making me worry for them, care about them and fear what might happen to them. The story also unfurls slowly, forever building the tension which is why I flew through the book because I had to know.

I wholeheartedly recommend this to everyone and I think this is going to be hitting my top books for 2019 already! It took my breath away and I will be thinking about this book for a few days more.