“London Evening Post, November 21, 2017. A warning about the dangers of open-water swimming has been issued following the death of a young woman at a local nature reserve. Sophie Blake, twenty-one, went missing on the evening of July 7, 2017. Miss Blake, who worked as a nanny, had been reported missing by her employers. Her body was found several days later in the East Reservoir. She had suffered a large cut to her head.”
That’s a passage from the first chapter of Katherine Faulkner’s mystery The Other Mothers.
Sophie’s death is the impetus for the story. Tash Carpenter, a freelance journalist looking for a big story that will make her reputation, does not believe that Sophie’s death was a suicide. As she works on the story, she becomes friends with several wealthy women who bring their children to the same playgroup that Tash uses. They live a life of privilege that Tash has always dreamed of. But something is off about these women who don’t reveal that they knew Sophie until Tash is deep into her investigation.
The narrator alternates chapters between Tash and Sophie, slowly revealing what actually happened to Sophie as Tash discovers more and more evidence that Sophie was, in fact, murdered. Everyone becomes a suspect, even Tash’s physician husband. Once again, “what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”
If you’re looking for another mystery where everyone’s a suspect then you must read The Other Mothers by Katherine Faulkner.