Recently Read – Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica

Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica

Genre;  Psychological thriller

A chance encounter sparks an unrelenting web of lies in this stunning new psychological thriller from national bestselling author Mary Kubica

She sees the teenage girl on the train platform, standing in the pouring rain, clutching an infant in her arms. She boards a train and is whisked away. But she can’t get the girl out of her head…

Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman: she works for a nonprofit, takes in stray cats. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Disheveled and apparently homeless, this girl could be a criminal—or worse. But despite her family’s objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home.

Heidi spends the next few days helping Willow get back on her feet, but as clues into Willow’s past begin to surface, Heidi is forced to decide how far she’s willing to go to help a stranger. What starts as an act of kindness quickly spirals into a story far more twisted than anyone could have anticipated.

My Thoughts:

Can you tell from the photograph that this was another of my holiday reads?! I do love holidays and the time they give you to relax and catch up with much-needed reading time.

This is another corker of a novel from Mary Kubica. It’s told from the viewpoints of Heidi, Chris her husband and Willow.

Heidi really wants to help and make everything OK but Chris is suspicious and not at all happy about the stranger in his home. He does however relent and allow his wife to continue with her planned houseguests. Willow’s chapters are glimpses into her life, into how she came to be on that platform where Heidi found her. As the novel progresses we learn more and more about the characters and watch in horror as things start to slowly and gradually crumble, as they invariably do and as you’d expect them to in a psychological thriller. And whatever you think the way this scenario could twist before you read this novel, it’s probably not the way it goes. This deteriorates with shocking and unhappy results and will leave you waiting for the next Kubica novel with anticipation. She weaves chapters smoothly and has you understanding the characters motives and each breakdown and crumble as it arrives. I found myself internally nodding or shaking my head at some of the actions and reactions because I could see what would happen if the character did what they were going to do and I understood why they would do it. This showed me how immersed I was and how believable the characters were.

Not happy reading because it’s not a happy situation, but a great psychological thriller if that’s what you are looking for. Another great read from Kubica.

You can find out what I thought of her debut novel, The Good Girl Here and see how Mary writes her first drafts Here.

With thanks to the author and publisher for my copy.