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The Surrogate Mother

The Surrogate Mother

Domestic ThrillerPsychological Thriller
Pages
256
Published
2018
Language
English

Synopsis

Abby Adler has built a successful career in advertising, but the one thing she wants most has stayed out of reach: after years of failed fertility treatments and a collapsed adoption, she has nearly given up on becoming a mother. Then her young personal assistant, Monica, makes an extraordinary offer — to carry a baby for Abby and her husband in exchange for help with graduate-school tuition. It seems like the answer to a prayer, and Abby lets herself hope again. But Monica is not who she appears to be, and as the pregnancy advances, unsettling truths about her past begin to surface. What was meant to be a gift becomes a slow-tightening web of deception, leaving Abby increasingly afraid of the woman who holds her family’s future inside her. An early McFadden standalone, it turns the longing for a child into a vehicle for domestic dread.

Prose complexity
3/10

Vibe

TenseDarkMysterious
Secret IdentityBetrayalUnreliable NarratorMorally Grey

Genres

Domestic Thriller Psychological Thriller Suspense Thriller

About the author

F
Freida McFadden

Freida McFadden is the pen name of a practicing American physician who specializes in treating brain injury, and one of the best-selling psychological-thriller authors of her generation. She published under the pseudonym from her 2013 debut onward, keeping her identity hidden so her medical patients wouldn’t connect her to her fiction, and only revealed her real name publicly in April 2026. The name itself is a medical inside joke — “FREIDA” is the acronym for the American Medical Association’s...

Characters

Abby AdlerProtagonist

An advertising professional desperate to become a mother after failed fertility treatments and a failed adoption.

Monica JohnsonSupporting

Abby’s young personal assistant, who offers to carry the baby in exchange for tuition.

Sam AdlerSupporting

Abby’s husband.

All characters in The Surrogate Mother

Frequently asked questions

  • Is "The Surrogate Mother" really by Freida McFadden?

    Yes. It is a verified McFadden standalone, even though other authors have books with similar titles.

  • When was it published?

    It was originally published in 2018, with a later Poisoned Pen Press reissue.

  • What is it about?

    A woman desperate for a child accepts her assistant’s offer to be a surrogate, then discovers the assistant is hiding a dangerous past.

  • Who is the protagonist?

    Abby Adler, an advertising professional, after years of failed fertility treatments and a failed adoption.

  • Is it a standalone?

    Yes, it is a standalone thriller.

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