"The Good Mother" by Rae Cairns

An audio book.

2014, Sarah, divorced from Evan and living in Australia, has daughters Alice (12) and Sofia (8), and a son Riley (16), who's offered 4 months of soccer training in Dublin. His father's prepared to pay. She doesn't want him to go - when she worked in Belfast she had to leave suddenly. She thinks that Riley won't be safe. But she relents.

She used to enjoy running. In 1997 Michael was her boyfriend in Belfast. Michael was exciting. Evan was solid and dependable. Michael was Dan's brother and defending lawyer. Dan's now high in the IRA. Her friend Jerry died.

For a month after Riley's departure, all's quiet. Stone, an Irish Dectective (whose aunt had been killed by bomb equipment that Dan McNulty supplied, and was connected with someone called Olivia) interviews her, and a plane ticket to Ireland is delivered to her - by Dan she suspects.

She decides to accept the offer, first agreeing to give Stone evidence provided her family's protected. She asks her father Max (ex-Army. She's not seen him for 17 years) to protect Riley. In Ireland she's taken to see Dan and (briefly) Michael. Dan tells her to get the case to court then say that he'd been sleeping with her on the night of the murder, otherwise her family will be killed. Max gets her a gun. She sees Riley. He's doing well at soccer camp. He has a girlfriend Siobhan. Sarah checks her out. She's 18 with a father in prison. She tells Siobhan that she knows she's spying for Dan (under duress?), and offers to pay her to leave, but instead, Riley orders her mother to leave. She becomes more friendly with Alec Stone.

We learn that her friend Jerry got away from a bad situation but was drawn back by at attack on his brother. Her friend Quinn is still around. His brother Liam deals in drugs. She buys drugs from him. She plans to plant drugs in Siobhan's car and tell the police. She gets drunk. Alec happens to be in the pub and gives her a lift to her hotel. She's flirty. He doesn't take up the offer. He says that if she asks about Olivia again he'll drop the case. Later he reveals that Olivia was her daughter who died because her estranged wife was high on IRA drugs.

Evan is assaulted. She throws away the drugs. She's abducted for 2 days, warned, then released. She sleeps with Alec. She's arrested for shooting at Alec (while she'd been abducted). Michael suggests to her that Alec told Dan about Sarah so that Dan would invite her to Belfast - all Alec cared about was Dan's conviction.

While in court she realises that Riley's been abducted. Max is killed. She helps Alec in a raid to free Riley and to get evidence that Dan's preparing a bomb. She tells Michael that Riley is his son. He doesn't believe her. She's caught. She tries to make Dan's gang to see that he's a psychopath, not interested in family or Ireland. He kills Michael (who hHad been protecting her). He gets her to drive a car with a time-bomb in it to the city centre. Unconscious Alec is in the back of the car. He revives, tells her that Riley is safe in another country thanks to Michael, then gets out. She drives back to the hide-out.

Days later, recovering in hospital she tells Alec that she sees no future for the 2 of them. A year later she and Riley return to put a stone on Michael's grave. The police and Dan's organisation have been purged. She first cold-shoulders Alec then asks him out.

There are some unlikely details. Would she really fall for Alec? That the gang left Alec in the car puzzles me. Max seems little more than a plot device. There's a standard sentence pattern to deal with emotions - "Stiffness entered his voice"; "Pain seared through her skull"; "Words dissolved in her mouth"; "Acid curdled in her stomach"; "Heat seared up her chest"; "shock fired up in his eyes"; "Sorrow darkened his eyes"; "her insides seared with heat", etc. I think "Sarah swallowed the knife in her throat" is going too far.

Other reviews

• debbish (There’s a strong theme of family loyalty here – in Sarah’s relationship with her children, and her father (Max’s) to her and her family. As well as Sarah’s former love interest and the moral dilemma he constantly faced – committed to upholding the law but supporting a brother intent on subverting it and believing he is justified in doing so. I liked the way Cairns portrays the relationship between Sarah and ex-husband Evan; the life they lived together and the end of their marriage. It felt very real… and surprisingly healthy. I also liked Irish cop Alec Stone who’s seemingly obsessed with bringing down those involved in the murder(s) years before ... I would have liked a little more information about Sarah and her father Max.)
• scatterbooker
• Goodreads