Day: June 21, 2023

What happens when a vacation friend shows up as The Mother at Number 5? This new psych thriller by Jill Childs explores female friendships and family secrets.

Of course, nothing is as it actually seems.

Ros is on vacation with her family when she meets Lotte. The two strike up a friendship (as sometimes happens on vacation). Ros figures she’ll never see Lotte again.

Until Lotte shows up outside their children’s school (no, that’s not a spoiler).

A cat-and-mouse game follows, with Ros feeling like something isn’t quite right. Why is Lotte there? Did Ros miss something during their initial meeting? Does Lotte have a connection to the area that she neglected to mention?

Answers to all of these questions (and many more) appear via chapters told from either Ros or Lotte’s points of view. Lotte’s pop up intermittently here and there. But it’s always clear who the reader is following.

The author does a really good job of keeping the reader guessing right along with Ros. So much so that when the reveals start to occur and secrets come to light, the reader is probably as shocked as Ros.

I will say that I didn’t think the kids factored heavily into the story – that they were more vehicles for Lotte and Ros to meet. But I was wrong about that. So (fair warning/no spoiler) pay attention to the kids.

The biggest twists at the end are also well done. One, I had kind of guessed at, but another one completely took me by surprise. The author played another kind of close-to-the-chest for much of the story, so the revelation was shocking.

The Mother at Number 5 is an excellent beach read. It’s a solid psych thriller (be careful of who you talk to while on vacation!), and I look forward to the next book from Jill Childs.