Lucy, who lost her mother as a teenager, had hoped that when she and Ollie got married, his mother, Diana, would warm to her. But Diana has always kept Lucy at arm's length, much to Lucy's disappointment. Resigned to her standoffish mother-in-law, Lucy is nevertheless shocked when the police show up at the door of Lucy and Ollie's home to tell them that Diana is dead. Diana had recently informed Ollie and his sister, Nettie, of her breast cancer diagnosis, and a note found in Diana's desk seems to imply that she chose suicide rather than a cancer battle.
But then the autopsy reveals that she did not in fact have cancer. The police keep coming around, hinting that perhaps her death was not actually suicide. As the investigation unfolds, and the secrets of young Diana are told, Lucy gets caught up in the story that Diana spent so much of her life trying to hide from her children.
Sally Hepworth (The Things We Keep, The Family Next Door) has delivered a delightfully twisty domestic suspense novel in The Mother-in-Law. Hepworth does a remarkable job showing the misunderstandings between Lucy and Diana through each woman's eyes, and will keep the reader on tenterhooks to find out exactly how and why Diana died. Fans of Big Little Lies and Then She Was Gone will love the startling end of The-Mother-in-Law. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Tucson, Ariz.