The Wrong Mother is my fifth psychological suspense. Since my first novel, The Rival, was published, I’ve released a new novel every year. Unsurprisingly, it becomes more challenging, the more novels you have written, to come up with ideas and concepts that feel fresh. There are so many brilliant suspense novels published every year and every author I know lives in dread of accidentally copying someone else’s premise.
I’m fortunate that I do have a loose ‘theme’ connecting all my novels – they all examine a different aspect of contemporary parenting. The Rival explores one high-flying woman’s devastation when she loses her job while pregnant; Unfollow Me explores the obsession some people have with ‘mummy influencers’; The Perfect Father examines the downfall of a stay-at-home dad who kidnaps his own daughter, and The Sanctuary follows five pregnant women as they head off for a pre-natal yoga retreat.
So when I came to write my fifth book, I knew I wanted to stick to exploring the myriad ways people parent today. And it was pure serendipity that I came across an article in the Guardian, talking about the rise of ‘co-parenting agencies’. I couldn’t believe such a thing existed, but they do – agencies which aim to match up men and women who want to have children but are single, and don’t necessarily want to wait to find the perfect romantic partner before becoming a parent.
To me, this theme felt very much in line with my other novels, and so, the decision was made. But as any writer will tell you, having a theme or an idea is only the starting point. There’s always that crucial question: and then what?
A man and woman get paired up on a co-parenting app… and then what?
The helpful thing about having had four novels published already is that I can look back at my reviews, and take advice from my readers about what they enjoyed and what did and didn’t work for them. I knew from my bestseller, The Perfect Father, that people really enjoyed having their opinions of a character change dramatically throughout the course of a novel. I decided this was a trope I wanted to incorporate in this book too.
I also knew that they love a midpoint twist. There’s a huge twist in The Perfect Father, and I decided again to try to pull off something similar in The Wrong Mother. I can’t tell you much more without filling this piece with spoilers but I knew I wanted to write about two women, and have the readers’ opinion of them both change drastically throughout the book. I also wanted there to be at least one moment when the reader is stunned enough to have to read the page twice.
And so, we have Faye and Rachel. Faye is 39 and single and desperately wants a child of her own – desperately enough to sign up to a co-parenting app, where she’s matched up with wealthy Louis. The pair embark on the quest to have a baby together.
But a year later, Faye is on the run from Louis with the baby in tow. Meanwhile, Rachel is in her 60s and lives alone, but rents out a room in her small cottage. Faye responds to Rachel’s room advert, hoping to have found a safe sanctuary. Faye and the baby move in, and everything starts to unravel for them all…
The final piece of the puzzle for the novel was the setting. I started writing the first draft in October, and my deadline was the middle of December. I thought it might be fun to set the novel at the same time – and thus I got to write about Bonfire Night, that peculiarly British event where we burn effigies and send fireworks up into the sky.
I also knew that I didn’t want to set this book solely in London. I lived in London for many years and now live just outside of it, but I want my novels to explore all parts of the UK. The Sanctuary is set in Devon, but for The Wrong Mother I thought it would be fun to set most of the action in a remote Norfolk village.
I absolutely loved writing these two characters, and playing with the reader’s perception of them both. It was immense fun to write this book, and I hope the reader will experience the same joy when they read it.
The Wrong Mother by Charlotte Duckworth (Quercus Publishing) Out Now
One mother on the run. A safe place to hide. But you can't escape the past forever . . . Faye is 39 and single. She's terrified she may never have the one thing she always wanted: a child of her own. Then she discovers a co-parenting app: Acorns. For men and women who want to have a baby, but don't want to do it alone. When she meets Louis through it, it feels as though the fates have aligned. But just one year later, Faye is on the run from Louis, with baby Jake in tow. In desperate need of a new place to live, she contacts Rachel, who's renting out a room in her remote Norfolk cottage. It's all Faye can afford - and surely she'll be safe from Louis there? But is Rachel the benevolent landlady she pretends to be? Or does she have a secret of her own?
You can find out more information about Charlotte and her books on her website. You can also follow her on Twitter @charduck and on Instagram @charduck.
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