Book ~ "The Mother-in-Law" (2019) Sally Hepworth

From Goodreads ~ From the moment Lucy met her husband's mother, Diana, she was kept at arm's length. Diana was exquisitely polite and properly friendly but Lucy knew that she was not what Diana envisioned. But who could fault Diana? She was a pillar of the community, an advocate for social justice who helped female refugees assimilate to their new country. Diana was happily married to Tom and lived in wedded bliss for decades. Lucy wanted so much to please her new mother-in-law.

That was five years ago.

Now Diana has been found dead, a suicide note near her body. Diana claims that she no longer wanted to live because of a battle with cancer.

But the autopsy finds no cancer.

The autopsy does find traces of poison and suffocation.

Who could possibly want Diana dead?

Why was her will changed at the eleventh hour to disinherit both of her adult children and their spouses?

Lucy's mother had passed away when she was young so when she started dating Ollie, she was looking forward to forming a bond with Diana, his mother. Tom, Ollie's dad, was friendly and welcoming but Diana was cold. Even after Lucy and Ollie got married and started having children, Diana never warmed up to Lucy (or anyone else except for Tom).

When Diana is found of an apparent suicide, everyone is shocked. The police have to investigate and as they do, they discover Diana's death was suspicious. Though a suicide poison was found near her body, she had none in her system. She had told her children she had cancer when it's discovered during the autopsy that she didn't. Her two children assumed they would inherit her vast wealth when she passed away but she had changed her will shortly before she passed away.

I liked this story and the writing style. It's written in first person perspective in Lucy and Diana's voices (the chapters are labeled). The timeline jumps back and forth from the past (from when Diana was a teenager) to present day (the chapters are labeled). If it was murder, there were lots of possibilities of who could have dunnit. As a head's up, there is some swearing.