Review of The Other Mothers

I love a good mum thriller and you KNOW I love a Neighborhood Thriller, so I was very excited to try this book about a mom of a toddler who investigates a local nanny’s death. Check out my Review of The Other Mothers, including a protected section with the ending explained and SPOILERS.

Written and edited by Jen Ryland. Last updated on:

April 12, 2024

The Other Mothers by Katherine Faulkner

Published on December 5, 2023 by Gallery Books.

Thanks to the publisher for the advance review copy. I read this book in November 2023.

Plot Summary for the Other Mothers

A woman in a blue coat looks into a window.

Tash is trying to juggle her marriage, care for her energetic young son, and restart her journalism career with some freelance work. So when she learns of the mysterious death of a young nanny in her London neighborhood, she can’t help but ask questions. She hopes that these questions will lead to some sort of feature article or even a podcast on the case.

The other mothers, who seemed cool to Tash before, suddenly seem more welcoming. Are they trying to control Tash or silence her? Who really knows what happened?

I have written about my fondness for Neighborhood Thrillers, which are somewhat similar to Locked Room Mysteries in that there is a claustrophobic feel and a limited cast of suspects.

While I always welcome an original twist on a trope, the possible drawbacks of these types of books are a cast of entirely unlikeable characters or books that take a weird turn at the end.

The Other Mothers sidestepped most of these problems.

What I Liked about The Other Mothers:

main character Tash was relatable and smart, determined to advocate for a young woman who couldn’t do that for herself
The characters were varied enough to be distinct from one another, which can be another drawback of a suburban or neighborhood thriller
There were quite a few twists and reveals

What I Liked Less About The Other Mothers:

Narration from the dead. I guess technically this was a past/present narrative, with Sophie in the past and Tash in the present. While I appreciated having Sophie’s perspective, I felt that there was too much of it.
Are books with podcast elements overdone already? The podcast in this book was nothing but the main character’s pipe dream, but I feel like maybe some epistolary elements could have worked well here and tied in with Tash’s reporting background.

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SPOILERS FOR THE OTHER MOTHERS

Jez was the secret father of Christina’s daughter Eliza.

Laura, a colleague of Tash’s doctor husband Tom, was in financial difficulty and desperate after her husband Ed was fired after accusations of sexual harassment.

Sophie, the nanny for Jez and Claire, found out about Jez’s affair with Christina and their secret child.

Then Sophie confronted Jez’s wife Claire with the information and they fought. Claire pushed Sophie, and she fell and hit her head.

Laura was coming over to beg Jez for financial help and found Sophie, injured. Laura saw an opportunity out of her financial difficulties. She examined Sophie and told Claire and Jez that Sophie was dead. Laura then offered to help them by moving the body and keeping their secret for money.

In the present, Sophie confronts Jez with this accusation and also accuses him of killing Sal to keep his secret. There’s an argument and a struggle and Jez accidentally hits Tash. She pushes him and he falls off a cliff and dies.

Big Little Lies style, the group present (Laura, Nicole, Claire, and Tash) agree to claim that Jaz fell accidentally.

Four months later, Tash is pregnant again and moving from London to Oxford. As Tom and Tash are packing, Tom picks up Sophie’s postmortem report and says that her fall couldn’t have killed her. He thinks she was smothered.

After talking to Christina, Tash realizes a) Laura must have killed Sal and b) Laura also killed Sophie.

When Laura examined Sophie after her fall, she lied to Claire and Jay and told them Sophie was dead. Laura then smothered Sophie so that she’d be able to blackmail Jaz and Claire.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments, including spoilers, which I can mark for you!

Review of The Other Mothers

The Other Mothers by Katherine Faulkner

Plot Summary for the Other Mothers