This was a thriller that attempted to deliver two big reveals at the end of the book, but both of them were obvious much earlier on, which was definitely a letdown.
DS Alison Hegarty is called to the scene of an accident? a crime? She’s not sure, but there’s definitely a dead body underneath a balcony at Monica and Ed’s expensive estate. And there are at least a dozen possible suspects, all of them members of an expectant parent group, some of them who have had their babies, and some who have had sadder outcomes. Alison is given a week to gather information and evidence to see if she can even prove that there was a murder in the first place. But, of course, the book is titled “The Push,” so that does give it away a bit.
While this book is told from multiple points of view, besides Alison, Jax is the biggest character. She is 38 — ancient(!) — and pregnant by her boyfriend, Aaron, who is (also shockingly!) only 24. She’s not supposed to be on maternity leave for another month when the book starts, but emails have started coming into the children’s charity she works with accusing her of sleeping with young boys, and she’s put on early leave. With a failing career, an overbearing and condescending mother, and a boyfriend who lacks a lot of maturity, Jax struggles through the end of her pregnancy and the beginning of motherhood.
I thought the mix of characters was really interesting — and I would have liked to spend more time with most of the other couples to learn more about their stories. I did think that the “bad” characters, though, where more caricatures of bad people instead of having a depth that a lot of people really do, especially since their motives were actually pretty complicated.
In terms of the big reveals at the end, I really wasn’t surprised… Once you figured out who the body belonged to, all the other pieces fell together really quickly. And, honestly, I didn’t think that the final outcome deserved the big police investigation.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.