Review by Booklist Review
Sadie Roper's world is abruptly turned upside down when her husband inexplicably forces her to leave their Brooklyn home with their 10-year-old daughter, Robin. So lawyer Sadie finds herself living in the London house left by her manipulative mother in trust for Robin, as long as Robin attends the same school, Aslams, that Sadie hated as a child. Both Robin and Sadie, the new girl and her mum, are harassed and even bullied by Aslams' "queen bee" in a typical "mean girls" manner, all of which appears to clear up when Sadie herself is found to be an Aslams "old girl." When she's hired to work on a case in which a teenage girl has accused her teacher of seduction, Sadie must try to balance work with parental school duties, all the while suffering recurring nightmares of being unable to find her lost daughter, as disquieting rumors about the school come to light. While this is a bit shorter on suspense than former barrister Tyce's notable debut, Blood Orange (2019), it's spot-on in capturing mother-daughter relationships and posing ethical legal questions.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Sadie Roper, the narrator of this engrossing psychological thriller from Tyce (Blood Orange), returns to her native London, along with her 11-year-old daughter, Robin, after she and her husband break up in Brooklyn. The provisions of Sadie's late mother's will state that she can claim a small inheritance and her childhood home only if she sends Robin to Asham Girls School, the same school Sadie attended. Despite the bullying Sadie endured at Asham, she agrees to the will's terms and enrolls Robin. Robin's new schoolmates are mean, but the girls' highly competitive mothers are worse. When Robin goes missing, the police arrest a mentally unstable mother on suspicion of kidnapping. Meanwhile, Sadie returns to the job as a criminal defense lawyer she gave up 10 years earlier for marriage. In her emotionally vulnerable state, she becomes dangerously attracted to a handsome teacher accused of molesting a student. More than one suspicious death raises the ante as multiple twists keep the pages turning to the satisfying conclusion. Readers are sure to look forward to Tyce's next. Agent: Veronique Baxter, David Higham Assoc. (U.K.). (Dec.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In this latest from the author of the attention-getting Blood Orange, anxious mom Sadie Roper, newly single and newly reemployed as a barrister, is thrilled to win the attention of Liza, queen-bee mother at her children's school. But what's the cost? With a 40,000-copy first printing; originally scheduled for July.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Coming home to London to confront her past, Sadie Roper finds herself embroiled in several mysteries. When Sadie left for New York with her husband and her daughter, her mother made it perfectly clear that she was a failure for choosing motherhood over her job and that she'd never be welcome in her childhood home again. But when her mother dies, she leaves Sadie the home in her will--with the stipulation that Sadie's daughter, Robin, must attend Ashams, the prestigious private school where Sadie went. Her marriage already in tatters, Sadie flees back to London; she has little choice but to adhere to the terms of the will. Returning to a house of gloomy memories, bearing the weight of her daughter's disappointment and homesickness, she struggles to find her footing. The school mothers are the worst, and the Queen Bee, Julia, has all the other women wrapped around her little finger. She makes Sadie's and Robin's lives a living hell--until she finds out that Sadie is an Ashams "old girl." Connection and legacy go a long way, and Sadie and Robin are soon invited to parties and sleepovers, part of the inner circle. Meanwhile, Sadie, trained as a barrister but having left work when Robin was born, finds a job helping to organize materials for an upcoming trial in which a young woman has accused her teacher of sexual abuse. As she begins to wonder about the truth of that relationship, a tragedy strikes close to home, and then Robin goes missing. What is the rot at the heart of Ashams? And whom can Sadie trust to help her uncover the truth about the case? The characters are sharply drawn, but there's not much depth to the plot. Misdirection, shadows, and a lot of snarky meanness--but in the end, it's all surface drama. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
