A Proper Mother: 'Scarily good.' Guardian, Crime and thrillers of the month

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Sometimes it's your own child you're most afraid of... 'Scarily good.' Guardian, Crime and thrillers of the month 'I devoured this truly superb and extraordinary book... A must-read that will haunt me for a long time!'Kathryn Croft, author of The Girl With No Past Ever since an ominous palm-reading on her honeymoon, Frankie has suspected that her youngest son, Michael, is different. From an early age he sees things no one else can. As he grows up academically gifted, a musical prodigy and with an unshakeable religious faith his mother can no longer deny there is something strange about him, or that it frightens her. It is only when Frankie learns Michael is sliding into drugs and violence that she realises she can't keep ignoring the past. But by confronting her destructive marriage and her own responsibility for all that has gone wrong, she begins to see there is something darker at play. 'Captivating and intriguing.'C. L. Jennison, author ofWhat's Mine is Yours

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'Shirlaw offers a portrait of a woman facing dreadful dilemma after dreadful dilemma. The violence is handled sensitively and the horrors that are exposed are all too convincing.' Literary Review

'I devoured this trulysuperb and extraordinarybook...A must-read that will hauntme for a long time!'Kathryn Croft, author ofThe Girl With No Past

Author Bio

Isobel Shirlaw has written for The Times Literary Supplement, The Daily Telegraph,theiandThe Catholic Heraldin the UKand forThe Daily StarandNew Age(Bangladesh). She won the Fresher Poetry Prize in 2019 and was shortlisted in Poetry Londons pamphlet prize in 2023. She has worked forThe Daily Telegraph,the British High Commission, Bangladesh, and for several UK-based charities including Refuge. She lives in Berkshire with her family.