Review: The Mother-in-Law (by Sally Hepworth)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

The Mother-in-Law is the second book I’ve read by Sally Hepworth (the first one being last year’s The Family Next Door) and just like with that book, I found this one to be a quick, entertaining read that kept my attention well enough, though I honestly would categorize this more as a domestic suspense than a thriller, as it didn’t have the “edge-of-your-seat” twisted thrill ride feel to it.  The story does start out gripping enough, with the death of Lucy’s mother-in-law Diana from an apparent suicide, though under circumstances mysterious enough to warrant an investigation into other factors possibly at play.  The subsequent chapters then go back and forth in time from past to present, with the narrative alternating primarily between the voices of Lucy and Diana, revealing bit by bit the backstory of the various members of the family, eventually leading up to the truth about Diana’s death.  As the details of the family’s struggles began to emerge and we (as readers) started to get caught up in all the drama and conflicts between the characters, this was where I felt the story started to veer a bit off course in that it became easy to forget that there was an actual mystery to be solved (Diana’s death and the circumstances surrounding it).  With that said though, we do learn quite a bit about Diana and Lucy and we also get a good understanding of the dynamics of their relationship – seeing how the same situations could be viewed so differently from the mother-in-law versus the daughter-in-law’s perspective, I actually felt this exploration of family relationships was the most interesting aspect of the story.  The ending I actually didn’t see coming in that I wasn’t able to figure it out early on (definitely a good thing, as it meant the plot wasn’t too predictable), but unfortunately, I felt the buildup wasn’t as strong as it could have been, which made the truth of Diana’s death when it was finally revealed in the end a bit anti-climactic for me. 

I don’t want to say too much else about the plot so as not to spoil the story for those who haven’t read this one yet.  For me, this book worked well as a domestic drama, a story exploring contemporary family dynamics and relationships.  Even though my family background is very different from the family in the book, I was able to appreciate some of the relationship elements that were explored and though the story didn’t go too deep, it still gave me some interesting insight and food for thought.  The part that didn’t work for me was the suspense/thriller element, as despite the “cliffhangers” at the end of practically each chapter, I felt like it wasn’t enough to establish the suspenseful mood that I’ve come to expect from stories classified under this genre.  I would definitely still recommend this one, just be mindful of the expectations going into it.   

Received ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley