In a sense, it could have been a great story. However, mid way through the book, there was no longer any mystery/thriller. It's only the unveiling of all the characters and the unfortunate event. With that being said, there are so many characters that it's hard to fully developed all of them to where you feel like you know them. I think if the characters were more developed it would make the mystery of it all much better.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

‘The Push’ by Claire McGowan focuses on a disparate group of people whose only link is their state of pregnancy. Taught by an increasingly strange ante-natal teacher, Nina, they gather weekly in a local hall to be scared, humiliated and generally undermined by this woman. Strange and not altogether believable although one could argue that first-time mothers may be too worried to question anomalies, perhaps feeling vulnerable or insecure.
Whilst McGowan’s main focus is on charity fund raiser Jax and her significantly younger partner, Aaron, she does manage to balance the narrative so that we remain interested in all of the other couples, even if some of them are rather sketchily drawn. There is no doubt that readers will be drawn in to the story; we learn early on that one of the women has met an untimely death and the police have to work out whether or not she has been pushed or whether she slipped and fell at the party Monica is hosting to celebrate the birth of the babies. What is clear is that pretty much everyone has something to hide!
This isn’t the most stretching of murder mysteries. It’s not difficult to work out who the deceased is even though McGowan doesn’t actually name her for most of the story. Likewise, the ‘twists’ are easy to predict. However, whilst further development of the couples’ relationships would have been interesting, this is still an entertaining, cleverly structured and well written thriller.
My thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

A classic locked room mystery thriller the likes of Agatha Christie. How well do you know your friends? A close knit gathering in a luxurious house ends in murder. How could be responsible? There are so many twists and turns until a thrilling climax that unveils someone no one expected.

I DNF this book. I will pick it up again and try later. I struggle with fertility issues and the investigator just got to me

I always love her books and I will come back to this for sure.

The premise was so intriguing. I love books with a contained number of suspects and the slow process of eliminating who's not guilty. However, I figured out the ending about halfway through the book. I feel like I can't even categorize it as a thriller since the second half of the book was more just watching everything I knew play out. With a little more suspense and a few more twists, this book could have been great. Unfortunately, it just didn't pull out the punches I'd hoped it would. That said -- there are some interesting characters and is worth a read as long as you aren't expecting a huge surprise ending.

Thank you for allowing me to discover such a good new author for my repertoire! Great plot line, interesting characters, I will recommend to friends and family.

DS Alice Hegarty is called in to investigate what appears to be an accidental death at a party. The party goers are all recent parents and they’ve gotten together to cut loose and relax a little, but when one of them goes over the balcony, the party is over. Hegarty doesn’t believe the fall was an accident and begins questioning the other party guests and discovers that none of these couples had an easy or typical path to parenthood. Is one of them keeping a secret worth killing for? You better believe it!

Brilliant psychological thriller that had me turning the pages so fast. Gripping, well written and an interesting storyline. There's a party held to celebrate, where one of the guests falls off a balcony. That then causes many secrets and lies to unfold and questions whether the wealthy family that hosted the party are all they seem to be. The characters were well defined and I highly recommend this psychological page turner.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.