Such a clever, multi-layered plot! An abandoned Victorian asylum, star-crossed lovers, catastrophic secrets, betrayal, murder and blackmail - what more could you possibly want?
When Sam surprises Marianne by buying a flat in the now restored asylum near her childhood village, he does not anticipate that it would throw her into a complete panic. The place itself and the reappearance of her childhood crush bring back a suffocating avalanche of memories.
Told in three distinct time zones (now, 80s, 50s), the reader follows the twists of the story and depth of feelings of the protagonists - and what a ride it is!
Mental (SCNR) note: Must read more Erin Kelly!

An interesting premise for a thriller which manages to weave the politics of "care in the community" into a story of hidden secrets. However, I did find it over long and by the end still didn't feel I understood the characters or their motivations.
Thank you to netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

3.5 Stars
Stone Mothers is an intense book that shows the impact an incident can have on those involved many years later.
The story is told at different points in time and from different perspectives, which gradually unravel the truth.
Marianne has moved on with her life but when she returns home to care for her mother, Jesse soon finds out and tracks her down.
Life would be so much easier if people would go their separate ways but Jesse won’t let this go and soon Marianne is forced to think back to ‘that day.’
This is a bit of a slow burner but a good read nevertheless.
Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I'm a huge fan of Erin Kelly's books. She is masterful at writing thoughtful, gripping thrillers which keep you guessing right until the last page. 'Stone Mothers' is another excellent addition to her canon. While initially, it seems like another story about secrets and lies, it's also a fantastic exploration of the lives of three generations of women and the ripple effects caused by female shame and female ambition.

What I particularly liked about 'Stone Mothers' was the obvious research that Erin Kelly must have done into similar establishments such as the one featured in the book and the untold effects that being in one of these must have done to generations of women. How the choices which we are afforded today were stripped from our forebears and how we must continually fight to ensure that these are protected. How tightly some women hold themselves and their trauma for fear of other people's opinions.

I also loved the community in this book, Nusstead. It felt like a believable small town which had been affected by austerity and its unwillingness to move with the times and I totally understood the main character - Marianne's - desire to leave there and the smothering love of her partner Jesse and his family.

True to form, there's also a cracking little reveal at the end - after all, it wouldn't be an Erin Kelly book otherwise (there really is no one quite like her for unexpected twists.) A really excellent read and definitely one I'll be recommending to other.

A fantastic read- a dark gothic thriller with an eerie edge. Kelly is the master of fully rounded characters, and the extra character here is the ‘stone mothers’. A fantastic read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Well crafted characters although you need to be sharp to gain the most out of this book. A bit of psychological thriller but also family drama. Short chapters which I love but disappointing ending. Not my favourite of hers but keeping going.

At times this book was fantastic, but at others not so much.
I thought the story would have more to it, but in the end it just wasn't as exciting as I'd expected it to be.

Erin Kelly is one of the most talented, skillful writers around and seems to get better and better. Stone Mothers is one of the most intelligent, thought-provoking and enduring novels I’ve read in ages. Not just a well-written, thoroughly researched thriller with satisfyingly real, rounded characters and a well-put-together plot, but a contemplation of the appalling experiences endured by women with mental health issues in the past and the reverberations that continue into the present. Just brilliant.

Overall this is a good read. I liked the main plot idea and the characters were good. I felt though that the book was too long. I seemed to get bogged down in the details and reading to the end began to feel like a task. After loving 'He Said, She Said' I think I was disappointed by this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This book grabbed me right from the start and kept its hold on me until the last page.

Marianne lived in Nusstead, near the old mental asylum, or as the Victorian’s used to call it “Stone Mothers”, but she escaped when she was 17, leaving behind her family and her boyfriend Jesse. But now the old asylum has been renovated into very expensive high-end apartments and her husband has just bought her one to make it easier for her to look after her mother who is ill, but Marianne is scared to go back to “Stone Mothers”. Besides Marianne and Jesse, only one other person knows what happened there!

Helen Greenlaw is a politician, but what has she got to do with “Stone Mothers” and why is Jesse thinking of blackmailing her again?

Erin has written a haunting tale of two people who have had to learn to live with the events of what happened when they were 17 which changed the course of both their lives forever. Marianne forged ahead in her career and now has a doting husband and a beautiful daughter, but you can feel the dark cloud still hanging over her head. Meanwhile Jesse was left to deal with the fallout.

This story is extremely well written and I loved how all the little twists were woven into the different timelines until we reached a beautiful, if haunting ending!

Thank you, Erin, I eagerly await your next book!

Erin Kelly is an author I really enjoy reading. The plot is never as simple as you assume it will be and there are twists and turns throughout. I have enjoyed all of her books and this latest one is no exception. I loved the way in which she developed the story and how you gradually understood what had happened in the past and gained different perspectives on the events which you previously thought you had understood. The characters are nuanced and all dealing with their own issues. Stone Mothers is an intelligent and well written which explores the impact of an action and how it can have repercussions for many people over the course of the years. We gradually unravel the events which have led to the point where Marianne is confronted by past events. Her husband surprises her with, what he assumes will be, her dream property only for us to discover that the place literally terrifies her.
It is a novel which has complex plotting and is also gripping. It revolves around motherhood and what women are prepared to do in order to protect their children and also about attitudes to mental health and the way in which patients are treated now and in the not too distant past. I would thoroughly recommend this novel.

This book unfortunately wasn't for me. The slow pace at the start made it incredibly difficult to connect with and as a result I felt it was a slog. About half way through it really picked up, but it still wasn't enough for me to fall in love with the book. Looking at other reviews though I'm clearly in the minority for this.

The story focuses on three people, Marianne, Jesse & Helen. All three share a secret so big that they'll do anything to protect it. The characters are incredibly well described, and incredibly human, filled with flaws and complexities. I didn't really like them, but I'm not sure that I'm supposed to.

I think part of the thing for me was whether all of the secrets were so serious that these people would have gone to such extremes. Without giving away too much of the plot it's hard to expand more, but I found it hard to empathise with the characters because of this.

A bit of a miss for me, but I'd be willing to try other Erin Kelly books just because I feel it had potential, it just wasn't quite there.

A slower paced thriller than I'm used to but still very good. Stone mothers is a phrase used in victorian time for Asylums and this book is set around an Asylum.
Marieann moved out of her home time to get away from a past she didn't want to remember. Years later unbeknown to her, her husbands buys a second home in the now renovated plot where the Asylum once was. Heading back to her hometown throws up all sorts of memories she can now not run away from.
Written over three timelines this thriller is full of knowledge of mental health and how is was dealt with in history. very well researched with some beleible and likeable characters, I found I warmed to the women more than the men, the men seemed to lack depth for my liking.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It offered a main story but with bits surrounding it and a lot of time wondering what had caused it all. IT is well written and keeps your attention throughout.

When Marianne’s husband surprises her with a second home in the converted asylum near her home town she doesn’t react quite the way he expected. Rather than being over the moon that they have a gorgeous, brand new, two bedroom flat she is devastated and bursts into tears. Telling him she is overwhelmed and has a slight phobia of these types of buildings she is able to distract him from the truth; she never wants to see Nazareth Hospital (or Park Royal Manor as it is now known) again. This place holds terrible memories and she would rather that the secrets about her past remain buried.

Erin Kelly writes really great psychological thrillers with, slow, gradual pacing. She is also brilliant at shining a light upon social injustice and inequality. In Stone Mothers, she examines the class system and the role of women who don’t quite fit society’s preconceived mould to great effect. Marianne’s hometown lies in the shadow Nazareth Hospital and for a long time was the main employer in the town. When MP Helen Greenlaw closed the hospital the majority of the town became unemployed overnight, a moment which changed Nusstead forever.

For Marianne, her escape from the town has led to a change in circumstances and she is both successful and affluent, something which her ex-boyfriend Jesse is aggrieved at. He is still living in Nusstead, has a number of children and veers from having loads of money to not having very much at all. He and Marianne will forever be tied together by their shared secret (something which is alluded to often in the first part of the book) and he has a deep hatred for Helen Greenlaw. This hatred threatens to shatter the house of cards which Marianne has built for herself.

Told in a four separate parts the secrets and history are gradually revealed. It does take a little while to get going and there is lots of ominous foreshadowing, which I have to say started to grate a little. However, what comes next is wonderful and we are taken from modern day, back to the 1950s and it is here that the book turns on its head and becomes something entirely different. I think this was my favourite part (and I can’t really tell you anything about it, because: spoilers) but it is this section which I found to be the most emotional, eye-opening and difficult to read. This is where Erin Kelly really excels in her writing, creating complex, multi-layered characters who you really care about.

It is these characters who build a world of injustice, poverty and mental illness. The themes are deftly handled and it was really only after reading that I realised that they were even there. On the surface this is a psychological thriller but dig deeper and it is a clever and blistering attack on society which prickles uncomfortably against your conscience.

This is the second Erin Kelly novel I have read, the first being He Said/She Said and they are two completely different beasts. Stone Mothers isn’t full of twists and turns (this isn’t a criticism), it is a well crafted, unsettling and accomplished novel of quiet power. I recommend it if you want something to get your teeth into.

4.5 stars.
I really loved He Said / She Said when I read it a while back so I was quite excited to see what this author would serve up for her next course. And, I wasn't disappointed even though it didn't quite reach the heady heights I'd anticipated.
Marianne has recently been commuting back to her home town to assist her sister with the care of their ageing mother. Her husband decides to surprise her by buying them a flat for her to stay in rather than use hotels every time. A caring thought and a wonderful action - no? Well, it would have been had the flat not been in a converted building that has a very dark history for Marianne. Going back to the home she fled as a youth is bad enough but living where it happened... that's just too much. Couple that with an old flame who is stirring the pot with his thoughts, feelings and actions and you get yourself a very wild ride indeed as Marianne desperately tries to keep her past a secret. Even siding with the "enemy" at one point. But, as they say, truth will always out - but will it? And at what cost?
Ooo, this book was layer upon layer of secrets and lies, all expertly peeled back and truths exposed at exactly the right times along the way to make this a very intriguing and shocking story indeed.
It's a slow burner but there is so much to the eventual story when it all comes out that it has to be.
As another reviewer has already said, the twists are a lot more subtle than the usual mindblowing huh! moments you usually find in a book of this genre. They are delivered more with poise and grace which goes hand in hand with the wonderful lyrical writing and almost appear more cerebral than just delivering a shock. It's hard to describe but you'll get what I mean should you choose to read this book.
Unlike most books that span a chunk of time in its story, this book doesn't adopt the usual tack of inserting chapters from another time every so often. Instead, we have sections that concentrate on each individual time line, a concept that I did find a little weird but which, at the end of the day, really worked. Especially when it all came together at the end.
All in all, a familiar genre and unique overall story, told in a very different way - definitely for me a breath of fresh air in amongst all the samey books I tend to be reading at the moment. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Erin Kelly is one of those authors who I will preorder books from without even reading the blurb. I was lucky enough to get a very early copy of Stone Mothers and actually started reading it without knowing anything about the plot beforehand (yes I was THAT desperate to get stuck in!!) And in a way I’m very glad that I chose to do so as it meant I had no preconceived ideas of what to expect from the storyline. It also meant that the slowly developed plot was able to keep me fully engaged as I remained in the dark about where it was heading and why.

Erin Kelly writes the most beautifully poetic prose to accentuate her narratives and it’s no different here in Stone Mothers. The subject matter is a difficult one to convey without resorting to cliches but the setting of an old “mental hospital” worked well as the backdrop to the three main protagonists and their connection to each other. None of them are particularly likeable at the beginning of the book but when it takes a turn and works backwards to reveal the secrets being kept, gradually an understanding develops of why they made the decisions that they did. So please do stick with this if you feel that the pace isn’t as fast as you are used to, the payoff is fabulous!

For me, Erin Kelly is a natural successor to one of my all time favourite authors Barbara Vine. I love her darkly disturbing twists that gradually creep up on you and wind tightly around your suspicions, squeezing until you can’t take anymore! But for me it wasn’t really about the “big event” that happened all those years ago, it was the backstory of one of the characters especially that completely involved me but made me so angry at the same time. That such things happened so recently in our society is unbelievable really but I know that things like this did occur regularly and Stone Mothers is very well researched so as to provide an accurate portrayal of the situation this character found themselves in and why.

I was fascinated by this book and adored the slow build up to what turned out to be a shocking conclusion. The themes of motherhood and mental health made a heartbreaking combination but one that worked well throughout this book. Erin Kelly fans will love Stone Mothers and I’m sure she will gain some more super fans with this stunning book. Highly recommended by me!

Didn't work for me as well as Kelly's novels have in the past. Perhaps the author was a bit over-ambitious in trying to write many types of story at once, and in doing so forgot to make the characters interesting. Ended up skipping a lot of pages. With that said, I still think this will be popular due to the momentum created by Kelly's previous books.

I loved He said/She Said and looked forward to reading Erin Kelly's latest book, Stone Mothers. It is a complex story, at the heart of which is a mental asylum in Nusstead, a small Suffolk village. The Victorians used to call asylums Stone Mothers, which explains the title.

The novel flips from the past to the present after the asylum has fallen into complete disrepair and the land sold to developers. A new building of luxury apartments has risen in its place, one of which is bought by her husband as a surprise for Marianne, who grew up in Nusstead. But the place spooks her out.

Although a very clever plot, it was a slow burner during the first half, about Marianne and her first love, Jesse and the secret he threatens to reveal. I didn't really engage until the second half where the story of the local politician who encouraged the sale of the land, emerged. Ms Kelly's description of life in a mental institution, especially for women when forced into one, is the best part of the book and the reason for my 4*.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the opportunity to read and review this powerful and moving story.

Though I've never read an Erin Kelly book before, I don't know why, I liked the sound of this story. NetGalley obliged me and I'm so glad they did. Stone Mothers is a very good story. I will definitely read more of Erin Kelly's books now.