The perfect mother

The Perfect Mother is Aimee Molloy's psychological thriller about a group of new mothers whose lives become entangled when one of their newborns goes missing.

They call themselves the May Mothers, a collection of women who gave birth in the same month. Twice a week, strollers in tow, they meet in Prospect Park, seeking refuge from the isolation of new motherhood and sharing the fears, joys, and anxieties of their child-centred lives. When they agree to meet for drinks at a local bar, they have a casual evening in mind, a brief break from routine.

On that sultry Fourth of July night, during the hottest summer in Brooklyn's history, something goes terrifyingly wrong: one of the babies is abducted from his crib. Winnie, a single mother, had been reluctant to leave six-week-old Midas with a sitter, but the May Mothers insisted everything would be fine.

Now Midas is missing, the police are asking disturbing questions, and Winnie's private life has become fodder for a ravenous media. Though none of the group is close to the reserved Winnie, three of them go to increasingly risky lengths to help her find her son, and as the investigation is bungled and the mothers are scrutinised, damaging secrets surface, marriages are tested, and friendships form and fracture.