Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Book Summary and Reviews of The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth

The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth

The Mother-in-Law

by Sally Hepworth

  • Critics' Consensus (2):
  • Readers' Rating (2):
  • Published:
  • Apr 2019, 352 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

A twisty, compelling new novel about one woman's complicated relationship with her mother-in-law that ends in death...

From the moment Lucy met her husband's mother, she knew she wasn't the wife Diana had envisioned for her perfect son. Exquisitely polite, friendly, and always generous, Diana nonetheless kept Lucy at arm's length despite her desperate attempts to win her over. And as a pillar in the community, an advocate for female refugees, and a woman happily married for decades, no one had a bad word to say about Diana…except Lucy.

That was five years ago.

Now, Diana is dead, a suicide note found near her body claiming that she longer wanted to live because of the cancer wreaking havoc inside her body.

But the autopsy finds no cancer.

It does find traces of poison, and evidence of suffocation.

Who could possibly want Diana dead? Why was her will changed at the eleventh hour to disinherit both of her children, and their spouses? And what does it mean that Lucy isn't exactly sad she's gone?

Fractured relationships and deep family secrets grow more compelling with every page in this twisty, captivating new novel from Sally Hepworth.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

One of PopSugar's "30 Must-Read Books of 2019"

"Starred Review. A masterful depiction of how much is said in the silences...a winner for fans of Liane Moriarty and Megan Abbott." - Booklist

"A mesmerizing domestic mystery." - Kirkus Reviews

"Hepworth's short, punchy chapters keep the pages quickly turning while effortlessly deepening her characters. Readers will race to the end of this clever novel to find the truth." - Publishers Weekly

"The Mother-in-Law is indeed twisty and suspenseful, but even more than that, it's clever and nuanced." - Kelly Rimmer, USA Today bestselling author of Me Without You

"Absolutely stunning. The Mother-in-Law has so many layers - I'll be thinking about it for a long time." - Heather Gudenkauf, NYT bestselling author

This information about The Mother-in-Law was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

techeditor

A Misunderstood Mother-in-Law
THE MOTHER-IN-LAW is about a misunderstood mother-in-law. It’s also about whether she really killed herself and who might be responsible. The story is told in both past and present from the points of view of, of course, the mother-in-law and of, of course, the daughter-in-law.

Diane and her husband Tom were rich and in love. Tom died first, and now Diane is dead too. Their daughter Nettie will do anything to have a baby, and their son-in-law Patrick is cheating on her. Their son Ollie owns a failing business, and their daughter-in-law Lucy has been dealing with her hateful mother-in-law for 10 years. They all have reason to kill Diane. Heck, even Ollie’s business partner, who was counting on Ollie's inheritance, might have done it. But it appears that she killed herself.

This is quite a convoluted mystery, and more and more mysteries continue to show up throughout the book. The main mystery I told you. But to tell you more might spoil any of the other mysteries. I can tell you this, though: I didn’t see any of them coming.

Sometimes a book that is a mystery is a thriller as well but not so in this case. That may be the reason that it wasn’t a page turner for me. But I would say the same of an Agatha Christie novel. So, although I would give it three stars for its pace, I give it four stars for its convoluted mysteries.

I won this book through bookclubcookbook.com.

Elizabeth of Silver's Reviews

Elizabeth of Silver's Reviews
A mother-in-law who didn't like you from the second she met you.

A mother-in-law who had a secret from her youth.

A mother-in-law who loved her charity more than she loved her kids, and told them they just can't have things given to them.

A mother-in-law who disinherited her children a few days before her death but had her reasons.

A mother-in-law who was found dead with a suicide note but with circumstances that didn't point to suicide.

And...a mother-in-law who actually wasn't that bad after all was said and done.

But....could a family member be involved in her death? Would you think a family member would do that to their mother/mother-in-law?

THE MOTHER-IN-LAW moved along quickly with the short chapters revealing all present and past family situations and giving information about how Diana treated her children and their spouses and how she felt about her charity.

The book is filled with secretive characters that keep you from actually knowing what they are thinking or planning to do or even if they are telling the truth.

THE MOTHER-IN-LAW is an all-around good domestic suspense with a few twists that pop up and that might have you looking at some of your family members in a different light.

It will also keep you guessing if a family member did kill Diana or if she committed suicide.

Ms. Hepworth has written another book with family at the heart of it as always as well as other things to ponder. 4/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Sally Hepworth Author Biography

Sally Hepworth is the bestselling author of six novels, most recently The Mother In Law (2019) which has been optioned by actress, Amy Poehler, for television. Her latest novel, The Good Sister is available in early 2021.

Drawing on the good, the bad and the downright odd of human behaviour, Sally writes incisively about family, relationships and identity. Her domestic thriller novels are laced with quirky humour, sass and a darkly charming tone. Sally's novels are available worldwide in English and have been translated into 20 languages. She lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and three children.

Author Interview
Link to Sally Hepworth's Website

Other books by Sally Hepworth at BookBrowse
  • The Things We Keep jacket

6 more...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more literary fiction...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: The Women
    The Women
    by Kristin Hannah
    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wide Wide Sea
    The Wide Wide Sea
    by Hampton Sides
    By 1775, 48-year-old Captain James Cook had completed two highly successful voyages of discovery and...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

When all think alike, no one thinks very much

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.