A Good Enough Mother

A Novel

By: Bev Thomas

Narrated by: Rebecca Lacey

Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

"Taut, absorbing and psychologically astute, in A Good Enough Mother Bev Thomas combines all the tension of a thriller with the emotional resonance of a powerful family drama." (Paula Hawkins, number one New York Times best-selling author of The Girl on the Train)

"Perfect for fans of The Silent Patient." (Booklist)

A riveting novel that lets us inside the secret world of therapist and patient, where boundaries get crossed, and events spiral out of control....

Ruth Hartland is a psychotherapist with years of experience. But professional skill is no guard against private grief. The mother of grown twins, she is haunted by the fact that her beautiful, difficult, fragile son Tom, a boy who never "fit in", disappeared a year and a half earlier. She cannot give up hope of finding him, but feels she is living a kind of half life, waiting for him to return.

Enter a new patient, Dan - unstable and traumatized - who looks exactly like her missing son. She is determined to help him, but soon her own complicated feelings about how she has failed her own boy cloud her professional judgment. And before long, the unthinkable becomes a shattering reality....

An utterly compelling drama with a time bomb at its core, A Good Enough Mother is a brilliant, beautiful story of mothering and how to let go of the ones we love when we must.

©2019 Bev Thomas (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A taut, intelligent psychological thriller.... Thomas plots her twists and turns so ingeniously that even veteran suspense readers will be floored.... Thomas joins the ranks of first-rate masters of misdirection who delight in artfully distracting us readers from the terrible truths planted right before our eyes.” (The Washington Post)

“A Good Enough Mother is both a heartbreaking story of love and loss and a hopeful meditation on the winding path to healing.” (BookPage)

“[An] exceptional debut.... Thomas melds astute psychological insight with powerful storytelling in this moving thriller.” (Publishers Weekly)

Haunting, Beautiful

This book is not for the faint of heart.
It is a tale that is beautifully told, incredibly well written and is engaging from start to finish.
But keep in mind that this author has an enormous amount of real world experience (I believe she was a psychiatric nurse for many years) and her real world experience comes through boldly in this story.
Some would say that it’s heavy, at times it is certainly dark, but more importantly it’s a beautiful story of how someone comes to terms with the unthinkable, and it speaks more to the strength and resilience of the human spirit than anything I’ve ever read.
The protagonist is so real and well developed that you become connected to her, and you care what happens.
There is also a central mystery that is resolved in a very poetic way.
This author understands something about life and truth that goes far beyond words.
I highly recommend reading this book.
It blew me away.
It’s shocking, insightful, painful, beautiful, and honest.
I truly could not put it down.
Excellent narration as well.
Bev Thomas has a unique gift, she writes with such honesty and vulnerability, I’ll not soon forget this story.
It will stay with me for a very long time.
Just like “The Family Retreat”.
The pages turn themselves, she’s an extraordinary talent and I cannot wait to see what she does next.

Could not finish.

So boring I couldn't finish. So much complaining I couldn't listen. it was irritating. Save your money.