Lucy lost her mother at a young age, so when she gets engaged to Ollie, she dreams of having a close, loving relationship with Diana, her mother-in-law to be. But, while Diana is well-respected in the community and established a nonprofit to help new refugees, she is very cold (albeit polite) to Lucy. She isn’t mean, necessarily, more unaware — from emphasizing the borrowed part of the something borrowed item she lends Lucy for the wedding to bringing her a raw chicken after Lucy has her first baby, the two women never really click. And, she’s not singling Lucy out — she’s the same way with her son-in-law and even with Ollie and his sister. Luckily, Tom, Ollie’s father, is the complete opposite — warm, welcoming, giving.
Until Tom dies, way too young. And now Diana is found alone in her house, dead, with a suicide note tucked away n the desk near her body. She doesn’t want to live anymore because of her cancer diagnosis — but the investigators discover that she never had cancer. She was poisoned.
This book was written in alternating viewpoints between Lucy and Diana. Lucy has some very valid complaints about her mother-in-law, but when we read the chapters from Diana, we learn the explanations for every action, every decision, every little thing that gets under the other characters’ skin. While Diana’s reasoning for not wanting to ever help her children or give them a boost makes sense given her history, as a mother, I just didn’t really understand not wanting to help your children when you’re in the position to, especially to the extreme she went.
Also, while this is definitely in the thriller genre, fair warning, it’s not one of those where you’ll be biting your nails to the quick waiting for what happens next. It definitely focuses more on the psychological part of psychological thriller, so keep that in mind. Still a good book and worth reading if you like this genre (which I do,) just a bit slow at times and not one that you need to plan on staying up super late to finish.