Her grief is seriously painful, and her separated husband doesn’t give her too much compassion either. She has suffered a lot, and only people who have lost children know just what a person is going through after all that. Tessa is a tormented character who has gone through so much.

Suspicion, betrayal, guilt, accusations, things not always being what they seem, and a whole lot of pain, are all craftily inserted at the appropriate times in the book to make it a suspenseful story where you have to keep turning the pages to see what comes next. The story is a prime example of a well-written psychological contemporary thriller with all the relevant ingredients present. She’s kidnapped yet another child just because she couldn’t think straight after having lost the first two. As the police arrive to take Harry from her apartment, there is a suspicion in the air that she’s done it again.

Tessa is in a rather precarious situation, as not long ago, she has been accused of abducting a small child. The little guy, Harry, reminds her of someone else. As the questions are bombarding her mind one after another, there is something nagging at the back of Tessa’s mind.

Tessa, who has lost not one but two children in recent years, is standing dumbstruck in front of the boy, not knowing what to make of him and the whole eerie situation. When Tessa Markham arrives home, she finds a little boy in her kitchen asking her if she is his mom. The Secret Mother by Shalini Boland is a standalone psychological thriller that keeps you up reading until you finish the last page.