This first novel from Susi Fox, a GP, has much to recommend it, and yet I don’t quite love it. When Sasha Maloney, a pathologist, wakes up in hospital after an emergency C-section, she is told she has a baby boy. She feels nothing for the baby she is presented with and becomes convinced he is not hers. The medical professionals around her believe she is suffering from post partum psychosis and not even her husband believes her. As a reader you’re not quite sure what to think, but SPOILER ALERT the nurse’s confession towards the end of the novel doesn’t quite seem credible. The motivation for the nurse to swop babies is not sufficiently compelling. Nor is there any good reason for the nurse to confess to Sasha, as she has spent the last seven days avidly covering her tracks. And then we as readers are asked to turn away from the other mother’s pain without a backward glance.
Mine is quite a compelling read but the lack of credibility in its concluding pages means it fails to deliver a final emotional punch. Fox gets so many things right but she’s just not quite there yet.
