The story was good, the mystery was strong, I wanted to keep reading and discover the resolution. However, it was like watching a scary movie on TV with commercials, broken up, losing the necessary tension and flow to maintain the delicious suspense. Just when I was getting into something, it would rip me out and put me somewhere else, leaving me discombobulated and frustrated. Perhaps this was the effect the author was trying to achieve, in which case, she was successful.

Gayle has a talent with description, one could easily see the dreary English landscape through the familiar gray-blue filter. The stress throughout the novel was palpable, the grief was tangible. It left you clawing for the surface, desperate for the air of your own reality. You know someone is a great writer when they affect your mood, either good or bad. Each character was laden with secrets that wove together an extremely rich and complex novel. I could relate to the mothers and their despondency over failure, vacillating between whether you were helping or harming your child by being present, if they were better off without you. There was the tiniest feeling of hope, enough to make you think that things may turn out okay.

My overall takeaway was that this story starts out good, ends well, but can become disjointed in the middle, but I look forward to reading more of Gayle’s work in the future. ( )

Nope! Kid watching dad get murdered and then dead child - I'm not in the right frame of mind for that stuff.

Just stopped reading - not even through the second chapter. ( )

This was an Amazon First Reads pick. I never seemed to get into this book and never quite figured out the purpose of the book. I did get interrupted in reading it, but I don't think that was the full reason. ( )