A chilling, compulsively readable novel of psychological suspense from the author of The Dead Lie Down and The Other Woman’s House

Sally Thorning is watching the news with her husband one night when she hears an unexpected name—Mark Bretherick. It’s a name she shouldn’t know, but last year after a business trip canceled at the last minute, Sally treated herself to a secret vacation—away from her hectic family life—and met a man. After their brief affair, the two planned to never meet again. All the details are the same: his job, where he lives, his wife Geraldine and daughter Lucy. But the photograph on the news is not the man Sally knew. And now Geraldine and Lucy are dead. The third book in Sophie Hannah’s acclaimed Zailer and Waterhouse series, The Wrong Mother delivers white knuckle suspense and Hannah’s trademark plot twists, and is perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn and Ruth Rendell.

2. Which character in the novel did you most identify with and why? 
3. Why is it important to voice the negative aspects of parenthood as well as the positive? 
4. Did Sally and Nick do the right thing by selling the home they loved to move somewhere they hated in order to allow their children to attend a good school? Is that kind of sacrifice something that ultimately hurts or benefits a child? 
5. Would Sally have been tempted to have an affair if she and Nick had remained childless? Should she confess her infidelity to Nick? 
6. It is ironic that Sally’s job involves preserving Venice from sinking into the sea when she herself is barely able to keep emotionally afloat. Are there any other instances in which the author employs metaphor to illustrate a point? 
7. What is Pam Senior’s role in the novel? 
8. Should mothers be able to take vacations from mothering? 
9. Did Encarna invite her own fate? Consider the lengths to which Jon went to protect his daughter’s good name: was he merely driven insane by their deaths, or was he trying to do something honorable? 
10. Cordy is the only character whose family remains unscathed by the madness that unfolds around her. Is it her selfishness or just luck that ultimately preserves Oonagh? 
11. If it is at all possible to compare two unspeakable horrors, which crime is worse—a mother who kills a child or a child who kills his or her mother? 
12. Is Amy’s chronic lying evidence of her unhappiness at home? If so, to what would you attribute Lucy’s ruthless honesty? Do parents generally accept too much blame for their children’s unsavory attributes or not enough?

This book is on these lists:

• April 2013 Indie Next List
• March 2013 Indie Next List
• February 2013 Indie Next List