Mothers' Instinct

The inspiration for the major motion picture starring Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain

“Had me in its grips from the first page to the astonishing and jaw-dropping ending.” —Samantha M. Bailey, USA Today bestselling author of Woman On the Edge

A dark, intense domestic thriller about next-door neighbors whose close friendship is upended by a tragic accident, from the queen of Belgian crime.

There is no love like a mother’s love.

Tiphaine and Laetitia are inseparable friends who live next door to each other in a tranquil suburb. Their sons, born in the same year, grow up together as close as brothers. But when one of the boys is killed in an accident, the mothers’ idyllic world shatters. Tiphaine is consumed by grief and bitterness for her lost son, while Laetitia is wracked with guilt. Soon the best friends are barely speaking.

Then mysterious “accidents” begin to happen to Laetitia’s son, raising her suspicions. As an increasingly paranoid Laetitia frantically tries to protect her son from harm, the little civility left between her and Tiphaine curdles into outward hostility. Is Laetitia just imagining things? Or is Tiphaine secretly conspiring to exact revenge for her loss . . . and if so, who will pay?

Translated from the French by Susan Pickford