The Push

A luxurious house, six couples who met at the same baby group, six newborns, and a party that is supposed to celebrate all of it. Then someone goes over the balcony, and the champagne is still on the table when the police arrive.

DS Alison Hegarty, quietly enduring her own fertility struggles, is convinced the fall was not an accident — and the new parents, exhausted, competitive and frightened, turn out to have a great deal to hide. The novel loops back to the weeks in which the group formed, tracing the friendships, resentments and secrets that were building long before anyone stood on that balcony, and withholds even the identity of the victim until well into the story.

Claire McGowan's standalone thriller uses the pressure-cooker of early parenthood — postnatal depression, money, judgement, the performance of a perfect birth — to build a mystery in which almost everyone has a motive.