Book Review - The Push by Claire McGowan - #HolidayReading Tenerife

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Title: The Push

Author: Claire McGowan

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Thomas and Mercer

Publication Date: 12th November 2020

Rating: 4 Stars

The party should have been perfect: six couples from the same baby group, six newborns, a luxurious house. But not everything has gone to plan, and while some are here to celebrate, others have sorrows to drown. When someone falls from the balcony of the house, the secrets and conflicts within the group begin to spill out …

DS Alison Hegarty, herself struggling with infertility, is called in to investigate. She’s convinced the fall was not an accident, and finds the new parents have a lot to hide. Wealthy Ed and Monica show off their newborn while their teenage daughter is kept under virtual house arrest. Hazel and Cathy conceived their longed-for baby via an anonymous sperm donor—or so Hazel thinks. Anita and Jeremy planned to adopt from America, but there’s no sign of the child. Kelly, whose violent boyfriend disrupted previous group sessions, came to the party even though she lost her baby. And then there’s Jax, who’s been experiencing strange incidents for months—almost like someone’s out to get her. Is it just a difficult pregnancy? Or could it be payback for something she did in the past?

It’s a nightmare of a case, and as events get even darker it begins to look impossible. Only one thing is clear: they all have something to hide. And for one of them, it’s murder.

It took me a while to really get into the story, purely due to the number of characters we are introduced to, and trying to get them all straight in my head. 

Once I had that bit sorted, my enjoyment and puzzlement about what all the party goers were hiding was growing, page by page, as I tried to guess everything ideally before the detective. 

Some I was spot on with, others not so much and I certainly didn't guess the ultimate answers of just what happened on that terrace when a person ended up going over and landing on a rockery. 

There were certainly some Wow reveals that had me shocked. 

Told in present time from the detective, in the weeks leading up to the fatal party by Jax, and then the day of the party in various passages of time from all the ladies present, you are treated to what really is a puzzling case. 

I ended up racing through the final quarter to see how it would all resolve itself, and really enjoyed it.

Thank you to Amazon Publishing and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.