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Picture of Innocence
psychological thriller
Avon Books UK
April 18th 2019
paperback
405
Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
My name is Lydia. I’m 12 years old. I’m not an evil person, but I did something bad.
My name is Maddie. I’d never hurt my son. But can I be sure if I don’t remember?
With three children under ten, Maddie is struggling. On the outside, she’s a happy young mother, running a charity as well as a household. But inside, she’s exhausted. She knows she’s lucky to have to have a support network around her. Not just her loving husband, but her family and friends too.
But is Maddie putting her trust in the right people? Because when tragedy strikes, she is certain someone has hurt her child – and everyone is a suspect, including Maddie herself…
The women in this book are about to discover that looks can be deceiving… because anyone is capable of terrible things. Even the most innocent, even you.
This is the story of every mother’s worst fear. But it’s not a story you know… and nothing is what it seems.
Hello there.
I hope you are having a great time. Today is my stop of TJ Stimson’s blog tour and I have a review for you, a gripping psychological thriller, Picture of Innocence. Don’t forget to visit all the other stops on this amazing blog tour.
How is your memory? How often do you forget things? Can you forget that you’ve hurt your child?
Maddie is a mother of three, a girl and two boys. But she suffers postnatal depression. With the help of her husband and mother, she believes she copes well. But then the blackouts start. One moment she is preparing breakfast for the children in the kitchen, next one she is in the shopping mall. She is so terified, she doesn’t tell a soul. And then her baby , the youngest son, dies in his bed. While she is the other room. And she can’t remember a thing. The first suspicion is the syndrome of sudden death that happens among babies, but then the patologist comes out with another conclusion, the baby has been murdered.
Who is capable of killing a baby? The mother who has blackouts and doesn’t remember a thing, or the father who wasn’t even there when it happened. The little sister who was watching the baby, or the aunt who accidentally came for visit. Maddie is suspecting everyone, but mostly she suspects herself.
Is she capable of murdering her own child?
Picture of Innocence is dealing with very painful subject, a death of a baby. And not just a death , but a violent death. Harming a helpless baby is the most awful thing that someone can do. The author created a twisty story revealing little by little every single one of the characters. It seems that no one is perfect, everyone has some kind of skeleton in the closet and a motive to harm the baby. There is also another character added at the beginning, Lydia. The story of Lydia is a story of a child abused by her mother and her many lovers. Adding her as a character gives even more tension to the whole story. It kept me wonder who was Lydia and how was she connected with the Maddie’s family. Picture of Innocence is everything but innocent. It’s a grippy story filled with tension and many questions and I will definitely come back for more. This is my first book from this author, but it definitely won’t be the last.
My rating: 4,5/5