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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
Child death; child abduction; moderate thriller tension
Language
Barely any
Mild language
Sexual Content
Barely any
No significant sexual content
Substance Use
Barely any
Minimal substance use
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Strong psychological intensity; maternal grief; mental illness; the consequences of a moment of madness
What this book is about
Benet, a crime novelist, loses her baby son in a hospital just as her mentally unstable mother arrives for a visit. In a moment of confused compassion, the mother steals a child from a shopping center — and the consequences spiral into dark, interlocking obsessions involving two very different families. A Ruth Rendell standalone psychological thriller about maternal love, grief, and the damage that can flow from good intentions.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Child death
Child abduction
Mental illness
Reader Verification
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