We all want different things. Francie wants to be the perfect mother. Nell wants to escape the past. Collette wants to spend more time with her family. All Winnie wants is to have her baby back. When Nell suggests a night out in Brooklyn to her new mums club, the others jump at the chance.
But the evening takes a tragic turn when single mother Winnie learns that her six-week-old son Midas has been kidnapped. As the investigation hits a dead end, Nell, Collette and Francie make it their mission to succeed where the police are failing and bring baby Midas home. But as Winnie and those around her come under scrutiny from the media, damaging secrets come to light and friendships are pushed to the limit. Because people will do almost anything to protect the ones they love . . .
The Perfect Mother is a debut novel from non-fiction author Aimee Molloy, and it comes with a lot of hype attached, as it’s already being turned into a movie by Sony, starring Scandal’s Kerry Washington. The story taps into every new parent’s worst fear – Winnie has left her six-week-old baby with a babysitter for the first time ever, only for the baby to have been kidnapped from a crib. What follows is a set of intense investigations by the police, by Winnie herself and by a story-hungry media. The book has drawn apt comparisons to Liane Moriarty, but Molloy is willing to go much darker than Moriarty ever does, and to get there much more quickly.
