We Were Mothers

Cora O'Connell lives in a picturesque town of immaculate houses and tightly knit neighborhoods. She is a devoted mother, and her closest friend is her neighbor Laurel. Then Cora comes across a journal belonging to Laurel's daughter, a college student who lives next door, and it records an illicit encounter.

Hours after that discovery, Laurel finds that her daughter has disappeared without a trace. Two families who have long been close are now in crisis at the same moment, and the whole story unfolds across a single weekend.

The missing young woman is one thread. An unfaithful husband is another, and each family hides secrets that threaten the polished surface of their lives. As the weekend goes on, one crisis sets off the next, and the secrets that surface prove far more disturbing than the first revelation.

This is a twisty suburban thriller of domestic suspense, built around a missing person and the betrayals between neighbors. The short timeframe gives it a tight, fast-moving pace. The women at its center must face the lies they have told to protect themselves, and the cost of those lies keeps rising.