The Stepmother by Sheila Bugler (Hodder & Stoughton)

Most thrillers waste time on scenic descriptions of the neighborhood before getting to the point. The Stepmother doesn't. Sarah is at the school gate, the kids are gone, and her partner, Mike, is the one who took them. Then comes the text: "Don't go home. It's not safe." The story moves fast because it has to. There is no time for flowery language when you are being legally ghosted by the police because you didn't have a marriage certificate.

The pacing is relentless, though it hits a few repetitive notes in the second act when Sarah is searching for leads. The characters feel like people you’d meet at a parent-teacher association meeting, which makes their descent into chaos more disturbing. Mike’s motivations are peeled back slowly, showing a man who was never quite who he claimed to be. The writing has a certain sharpness that cuts through the usual genre nonsense.

"He wasn't just taking the children; he was taking the version of my life I had spent five years building."

Read this if you want a story that makes you question how well you actually know your partner. It’s for the skeptics who find "happily ever after" suspicious and prefer a plot that actually has some weight.

3.5/5

If you liked this, you'll like these:

• The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth
• The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell