Mother Dear
Chapters (198)
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Mother Dear
- Three Weeks Earlier
- Friday
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- Saturday
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- Sunday
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- Monday
- Mother Dear
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- Tuesday
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- Wednesday
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- Thursday
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- Mother Dear
- Friday
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- Saturday
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- Sunday
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- Monday
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- The fall sun . . .
- “Helen? It’s Ria . . .
- Mother Dear
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- About the Translator
International Praise for the Author
“This tense psychological thriller from Holland’s answer to Nicci French utilises a classic trouble-in-paradise set-up . . . What makes it so effective is the broader picture Maier paints of dislocated dreamers out of their depth, obliged to cede control over their lives.”
—The Guardian
“Maier sketches characters that go beyond the standard thriller stereotypes.”
—Barnes & Noble Review
“Maier manages to lead us away from the path we thought we were following and constructs an intriguing morality tale that is a bestseller across Europe.”
—Daily Mail
“A sly, unusual thriller.”
—Felony & Mayhem Press
“Excellent writing.”
—Literary Review
“Terrific.”
—Sunday Times
“Excellent little thriller. If you like your crime fiction suspenseful, erotically romantic, tense and pacy, this is definitely a book for you.”
—Euro Crime
“Nova Lee Maier is a master of carefully devised plots, and she deserves an award for the final pages alone. But cleverest of all is the way she depicts her characters.”
—Knack
“Mother Dear is one of Maier’s best books. Smoothly written and brilliantly plotted.”
—Vn Thrillergids
“Nova Lee Maier clearly belongs to the writing elite in our country.”
—Algemeen Dagblad
“If you can keep your reviewer’s adrenaline pumping deep into the night, that is craftsmanship.”
—de Volkskrant
ALSO BY THE AUTHOR
Rendezvous
Close-Up
Title Page
Copyright Page
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2015 by Esther Verhoef
Translation copyright © 2019 by Jozef van der Voort
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Previously published as Lieve mama by Uitgeverij Prometheus in The Netherlands in 2015. Translated from Dutch by Jozef van der Voort. First published in English by AmazonCrossing in 2019.
Published by AmazonCrossing, Seattle
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and AmazonCrossing are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781542042796
ISBN-10: 1542042798
Cover design by Shasti O’Leary Soudant
Contents
Contents
Mother Dear
Three Weeks Earlier
Friday
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Saturday
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Sunday
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Monday
Mother Dear
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Tuesday
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Wednesday
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Thursday
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Mother Dear
Friday
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Saturday
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Sunday
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
Monday
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
The fall sun . . .
“Helen? It’s Ria . . .
Mother Dear
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About the Translator
Mother Dear
Mother Dear,
Every morning when I wake up, I savor the scent of the sheets, the fall sunshine streaming through the skylight, and the comforting sound of birdsong. I hear thumps and thuds in the hall and the bathroom, and the children bickering as they get ready for school. I stretch out, relish the sensation—and then the crushing darkness falls once again. A voice in my head whispers, You can’t feel good—you’ve done a terrible thing.