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What the blurb says: “She’s gone and it’s your fault. You were supposed to be watching your best friend’s 13-year-old daughter, and now she’s missing. But you know she’s not just missing – she’s been taken. Because Lucinda is the second girl to be abducted within a fortnight. And the first was found on a busy high street, naked and severely traumatized. No one expects the next to be so lucky. You’re going to have to figure this out – who did it. Because if you don’t, then Lucinda will be next. And you’ll never forgive yourself.”

Lisa’s life is beyond hectic. With her family, her job at the animal shelter, and the demands of her friends she rarely has a minute to herself. It’s easy to empathize with her, and it’s easy to understand how she might overlook the odd detail. An odd detail that leads to her worst nightmares coming true.

Alternating point-of-view characters – Lisa, DC Joanne Aspinall, and the child abductor – show the situation from three different angles. Like all the characters in this book, they don’t feel like characters in a story, they feel like real live people.

As DC Aspinall investigates the case as part of her job, Lisa sets out to find the truth herself as a way to try and make amends to her friend. As a reader you get a real sense of the close-knit community in Troutbeck – a small ‘typically English’ village near Lake Windermere in the Lake District. But the close knit-ness can be a blessing and a curse, and some residents’ lives are not exactly as they might have seemed, as Lisa discovers.

From the outset, the story sets off at a rapid pace. For me it was a real page turner with plenty of twists and turns in the plot to keep me hooked. High stakes and high tension equalled high speed reading – I finished this book in 24 hours, unable to put it down until it was finished. It also made me want to go and adopt another animal from the local shelter.

What Kind of Mother Are You? Is a stunning debut novel.

If you enjoy fast-paced psychological thrillers with an emotional kick, then this is for you. Read it. Now!

Highly recommended.

[With thanks to the publishers, Bantam Press, for my copy of Just What Kind of Mother Are You?]