Not a Good Mother

Autorentext

Karabi George, originally from India, now lives just outside Toronto with her husband and two children. She was shortlisted for the CWA Emerging Author Dagger Award, a runner-up for the Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, and a recipient of a ThrillerFest scholarship. Karabi's short fiction has been published in Litro Magazine, Volney Road Review, the Wayward and Upward anthology by Off Topic Publishing, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Litbreak Magazine. She holds a creative writing certificate from the University of British Columbia, has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, and works in corporate strategy. She enjoys reading, organizing book clubs, volunteering, and traveling.

Zusammenfassung

When an isolated young woman finds herself struggling to cope with new motherhood in a new country, she begins to feel like things can’t get much worse—until her baby goes missing.

Friday, 2:30 PM: Reema takes her infant daughter Anaya to the park for a playdate with Elizabeth, a friend she made online.

Friday, 4:04 PM: Elizabeth offers to watch Anaya while Reema goes to the restroom.

Friday, 4:08 PM: Anaya is gone.

Upon returning to an empty bench where Elizabeth and Anaya should be, Reema is overwhelmed with panic—why can't she see them anywhere? Was Elizabeth trying to soothe a fussy Anaya with a walk? Was she trying to move Anaya out of the sun so she didn't get overheated? With each minute that ticks by as Reema searches the park in a frenzy, a terrifying truth begins to sink in—Elizabeth has taken her child.

Friday, 4:45 PM: The police arrive.

But their presence is far from comforting—in fact, the more questions the detectives ask, the more their focus seems to shift away from Elizabeth and onto...Reema? As hours go by, Reema can sense that the police, her husband, his family, her neighbors, the media, they all blame her, even as the investigation exposes secrets and lies that everyone around her has been hiding.

Saturday, 3:12 PM: Reema takes matters into her own hands. Everyone thinks she’s not a good mother, but she’ll prove them wrong. She has to. . . .

Karabi George’s riveting, pulse-pounding debut thriller asks a terrifying question that lingers in the back of all our minds: How much can we really trust the people closest to us?