I got this fair-condition hardcover from Better World Books. It's by the author of Mother Love and Teacher's Pet, and is another tale of domestic suspense.

This one features Victoria Lambert as a lovely woman who's married her way to a life of luxury, but who is still eager to bear a son. She's recently become pregnant to her latest husband, a handsome if indolent charmer whom she stole from her own adult daughter Lottie, and is luxuriating in her dreams of finally having a son to rear as she thinks best.

As the story unfolds, darting back and forth in time to show us her past relationships as well as the life and trials of her much-put-upon daughter, we see that Victoria is good at deluding herself and others, and has an increasingly-chilling attitude about people who get in her way...

The asynchronous order of the story left me puzzled every now and then, as I worked out which character and which time-period we had just shifted to. It also made it take longer to realize the depths of Victoria's manipulations and its effects on her spouses, children, and step-children, though in some cases that made the payoff more effective.

While all of Taylor's books take their time introducing characters and leading up to a suspenseful climax, I think this one takes the cake for putting the most startling bits within the very last pages of the book! By that point we've met several other characters, including the intriguing art-gallery owner Graham, whose willingness to act as go-between to help (and get a percentage from) rising artists puts him in the middle of the climactic events, and James, one of those rising artists, who also happens to be the new love of Victoria's daughter Lottie. The final pages switch viewpoints at an increasing rate, in an almost cinematic way, and I admit that the climax was quite dramatic!

I left this book on a bench in front of the diner at around 2:45 or so; hope the finder enjoys it!

*** Released as part of the 2015 You're Such an Animal release challenge. ***