Books On Tour: The Other Mothers

Description:

It’s a crisp spring morning when the small-town community around Briar Ridge Elementary School is shattered by devastating news. Bright and shy five-year-old Nicole has disappeared at playtime.

Nicole’s mother, Gia, is lost in her grief. On the same day her baby girl vanished, Gia found out she was pregnant with the sister Nicole had begged for. Gia is also devastated that her best friend Karen was supervising the playground when Nicole was taken. And when Nicole’s body is discovered, Gia can’t help but ask: why didn’t Karen protect her little girl?

Someone knows what happened in school that day and Detective Jo Fournier is determined to find the truth. Jo’s little nieces also attend Briar Ridge and she would cross mountains to keep them safe. As she starts to dig into the mothers’ secrets, she begins to wonder if anyone is telling the truth. Gia’s been hiding a part of herself for years and Jo can tell it’s eating her apart. And Karen is definitely lying—but what is more important than finding the killer of her best friend’s daughter?

As Gia and Karen struggle with their guilt, a teacher at Briar Ridge dies in what looks like a tragic accident. But with two deaths in such a short time, Jo knows better than that. In this school, where soccer moms flock to the gates with cookies for teachers, someone is willing to kill to keep a secret. The only question is who.

A completely addictive thriller that will not let you go until you turn the last heart-thumping page! Perfect for fans of Gregg Olsen, Christopher Greyson and Teresa Driscoll.

Author Bio:

M.M. Chouinard's first fiction story was published in her local paper when she was eight, and she fell in love with Agatha Christie novels not long after. While pursuing a Ph.D in psychology and helping to found the first U.S. research university of the new millennium, the stories kept rattling around inside her skull, demanding to come out. For sanity's sake, she released them. She's currently at work on her next novel.

Author Social Media Links:
Website: www.mmchouinard.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mmchouinardauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/m_m_chouinard

Nerdy Mom Dot Com Review:

The Other Mothers is book four in the Detective Jo Fournier series. I must admit I have not read the previous three books in this series but was able to pick up book four without feeling lost or missing key details to immerse myself in the story. Crime thrillers are not my normal reading but the main character, Jo Fournier, sounded like a strong female character and that peaked my interest to read the novel. 

The story opens with Detective Fournier on medical leave from her detective duties in a small New England town. She is on medical leave because of being previously injured during a previous case. The detective was shot in the arm requiring surgery and physical therapy but that's not all. Detective Fournier also suffered a miscarriage from her injuries asking herself to question whether she should continue her career in police work at all. While on recovery she gets a phone call from her department about a homicide case that the reader finds out is near and dear to her heart. A kindergartner at a school her nieces attend was found strangled on the school grounds in the middle of the school day. The detective must put her personal feelings and losses aside to try and find out what happened to this little girl and help put her family, as well as other families within the school at ease by trying to find the little girl's killer before he or she tries to strike again. 

What Detective Fournier and her partner discover however is a town that is full of secrets and families that put up false facades in order to appear well put together to others around them. What appears at first glance to be a simple cut and dry, easily solvable case soon turns into a journey down a rabbit hole with so many twist and turns along the way by the end the reader is in complete suspense as to who could possibly be responsible. The mystery of who the killer is in the end is a complete shocker. 

I greatly enjoyed The Other Mothers. It was an absolute page turner I could not put down.  This is not a genre that I normally gravitate towards but I found the book highly enjoyable. The twist and turns and the many secrets that all the characters held was deeply interesting. I am reminded after reading this novel that people are like books we cannot judge them by their outward appearances and even though they may appear well put together and have a story book looking life, no one really knows what goes on behind closed doors.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and Bookouture for an advanced copy for an honest review.  

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://geni.us/B08JCGM5L8Cover
Apple: http://ow.ly/gIHS50BzQeK
Kobo: http://ow.ly/Cu1b50BzQdb
Google: http://ow.ly/QLGl50BzQgr