I was hoping for a little more from this book. I was able to predict pretty much everything that happened. It was definitely not a thriller but it was a quick, light read that was somewhat enjoyable.
Six couples join a prenatal group. All different ages,races,and social classes. One instructor. One party post babies. One death. All told in different pov’s. This book reminded me of a murder mystery party where you have to guess who the murder is.

Unfortunately this one didn't really work for me. Six couples meet at a prenatal class. Fast forward to a post-birth celebration, where someone ends up dead after falling from a balcony. The mystery involves who died, how they died, and what the respective couples are hiding. Maybe I've read too many similar books written in this same style, but I just didn't find there to be enough tension or drama. I figured out the two "twists" early on and could've used some more character development on each couple. Also, as someone who is not a mother, I didn't care much for the prenatal/birthing class backstory. This was an easy and quick read, but just not for me.

Thank you to Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley for an ARC of this title!

Six couples that met in an expectant mother group come together for a party to welcome the newborns that ends in murder. But who was murdered? And why? Following several of the different members of the couples, McGowan slowly unveils the activities of everyone leading up to the births and the party, as she also follows the police officer in charge of the case - who is having her own issues with births. Ed and Monica are a wealthy that seems to have it all, including a new baby - and a daughter from Monica's first marriage no one seems to talk about. Hazel and Cathy used a sperm donor to conceive, but who is Cathy texting? Anita and Jeremy are trying to adopt, Kelly is seeing her relationship deterioriate, and Jax has a much younger boyfriend who is searching for his birth mother. As it seems like everyone could have a secret they'd kill to protect - who actually did?

A lot of this book reminded me of "Big Little Lies" which I enjoyed, and I was immediately hooked by this story. Though I figured out several of the pieces early on, I still wanted to find out what happened.

The Push by Claire McGowan
Claire McGowan’s new novel is an excellent psychological mystery in which the various couples in an antenatal group reunite at a barbecue after their babies are born. The party ends with the group’s facilitator, Nina, falling from a balcony to her death on the rockery below. The story then winds backward, telling the story from the viewpoint of each mother until the narrative reaches the point in time of the barbecue. The slow reveal of each main character’s motives, secrets, and lies ratchets up the suspense as the story moves forward in time. The reader comes to know the various couples along with the problems and suffering they each confront. Some characters are more sympathetic than others, but the police detective, Alison, knows that they are all hiding something. Adding poignancy to the situation, Alison herself is grappling with infertility and deeply desires a baby. What is behind the death of Nina? Did the secrets that she herself kept hidden lead to her fatal plunge from the balcony?
The novel explores themes of parent-child relationships and motherhood, both the desperate longing for it and the sometimes painful realities of it, especially for new mothers. The ways in which secrets and lies affect close relationships also play out in the narrative.
The novel’s expert pacing, the suspense factor, and the well-depicted relationships between believable characters make this a good read.

This is a well conceived and delivered story. Six couples, all at one stage or another of expecting or hoping for a baby meet in a pre-natal class. Each couple has issues, some in their relationship each other, some because of an age gap, one couple because the baby they purchased in America does not materialise. Then there is the posh couple, Monica and Ed. She thinks she is better than the others having more money and a posh house. But is she not elderly to be having a baby? She has a teenage daughter by a previous relationship, Chloe. The book concentrated mainly on Jax who has a much younger partner, Aaron. She cannot understand who has it in for her as she suffers numerous incidents and online abuse. The pre-natal class is organised by Nina who has no apparent connections. The births and non-births are eventually celebrated at a class barbecue in the home of posh Monica. One falls to her death. There are then two detectives added to the mix one of whom also has fertility issues. Their progress towards determining what caused the death keeps the reader in suspense. The ending is unexpected but satisfactory. This is a well written book, full of tension. I recommend it.

Well - not sure where to begin this review.
Firstly - the storyline reminded me very much of 'Big Little Lies' Series 1 where you knew someone had been 'pushed' but you didn't know who it was. The Push differs by revealing the dead person half way through rather than at the end as in 'Big Little Lies'. Chapters veer from one 'mum' to another, forwards and backwards in time.
Secondly - the storyline, to me, is similar to 'Murder On The Orient Express' in that each 'mum' is revealed as having a reason to 'push' the deceased.
Thirdly - I fluctuated between 4 and 5 stars for most of the book. I felt at times I was reading a 'parents guide to pre-natal problems!
There have been many books I have reviewed and commented that I waited for a 'wow - didn't see that coming' ending but there wasn't one. I had confidently worked out why and who (either/or) in The Push and was delighted to see that, for once, I was right! However 'The Push' had, for me, a double 'wow not expecting this' ending that took my confident but apparently limited thinking/guesswork a couple of stages further.
So, to sum up, please read this book very carefully, look for clues (or red herrings) and enjoy the revelations in the ending pages.
Superb Book.

This book was about a random group of people who joined a pre-baby group. There were a lot of characters to keep tracked of, but the author did a good job distinguishing them. There were two different timelines, one in the present and one leading up to the birth of the babies. The mystery unfolded slowly and there were some surprises for me. By the end, I had it mostly figured out, but it didn't take away from the story. I enjoy this author's writing style and will definitely read her again. A recommended read.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley.

The Push is a complex and clever mystery. It is a fun read. I never took the characters or the issues at hand too seriously.

The basic mystery at the core of this novel is an accident, which may be a murder, that killed someone at a house party. Attendees at the house party were six couples, their instructor and the new babies born to the couples. The couples had all attended a course for expectant parents together. The party was intended to celebrate the newborn children, but the party was marred by the incident resulting in the death of one of the attendees. Even though the accident occurs at the beginning of the book, we don't find out who the victim was until halfway through the book. You find out how the death occurred at the very end.

But this is not the only mystery. For every couple, there is some other secret or mystery that needs to be uncovered. And the characters all lie. The reader knows they are lying, but needs to figure out why. That's what makes this book fun: the author is constantly keeping the reader guessing. I was taken in by this author game.

The structure of this book is a little complicated, flashing back to the weeks before the incident and also to the events of the day that led up to the incident from many points of view. I was able to follow easily, but this makes it the type of book you don't want to put down for very long.

Lots of surprises, all tied together with a bow at the end.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was quite the disappointing read for me. I loved the premise of a dead body at a party and the thrill of finding out whodunit. First the good parts, I thought the author did a fine job in tackling a retrospective look at the party, and kept the reader in suspense as to which party-goer died. Another fine job at what people go through to conceive a baby when things don't go according to Nature. Now for the downside, I thought the story dragged, and many parts were simply not logical, e.g. why would Monica attend the antenatal group at all? Why call attention to yourself? I had a real problem with that. Character development was minimal at best, although the author did a good job of introducing the characters by not overwhelming the reader. I'm torn about whether I'd recommend the book, maybe, depending on the reader.

I have read all of Claire McGowan’s books so I was delighted to be given the opportunity to receive an ARC copy of her latest novel, “The Push.” It is an engrossing murder mystery set in London involving the 12 members of an ante-natal group drawn together from different backgrounds, their only commonality the fact that they were expecting a child. At a post-birth party hosted by one of the members, someone takes a fatal plunge from a glass balcony to a rockery below. Alison, the detective investigating the incident, believes instinctively that the death was not an accident but has a hard time proving it.

The motives and background of each of the different characters are revealed through flashbacks beginning with the first group meeting to the day of the incident itself and their lives shortly afterwards. Each character is struggling with issues, both emotional and financial, which could provide a motive for murder. It is not until mid-way through the book that the actual victim is revealed, adding to the sense of mystery.

This was a deftly written mystery, which will leave the reader guessing until the very end. The characters were well drawn and their personal drama keeps the reader invested in the story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good murder mystery with well-developed characters.

A body goes over a balcony with fatal results. Thirteen diverse people in the vicinity with no coherent account frustrate police attempting to carry out the investigation. A premise for a satisfying murder mystery that struggles to deliver on several levels. The two women police investigating officers have never worked together as a team; this given as the reason for inept interview techniques, failure to speak with all witnesses and allowing personal private issues to impact on the case. Frustrating for the reader who cannot avoid questions on how valid does this make the storyline . Then the exposure of couples Intimate lives on the journey through pregnancy, childbirth, accelerating through marital disharmony and breakdown . Again stretching the realms of possibility. Too much drama, insufficient in depth characterisation leaves us wondering if the storyline moves from the believable to the ridiculous and do we identify or care enough. Finally the denouement of perpetrator. From early chapters it became obvious an identity scam involving a baby had occurred yet we were expected to believe the police did not discover this until conclusion of book. Too much going on, little enough believable actions and hugely unlikely situations make for a frustrating and unsatisfactory read. Many thanks to publisher and NetGalley for ARC.

A diverse group of people attend a barbeque after their babies are born each in different ways. Someone falls off a balcony to their death. Who is it and why? Everyone questioned says it was an accident? But was it? DCI Allison Hegarty has the task of finding out whodunnit. I liked this book very much because you do not find out who the victim is till half way thru the book. My only reason for not giving 5 stars is this is told from so many perspectives on a non linear narrative which brought the story all over the place. I also had a hard time liking most of these characters. They were all flawed in some way, which made the story entertaining, but no one relatable for me to root for

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Publishing for an early release of The Push. This was an Awesome book!!!! Took a bit to get into but once you were engaged, you cannot put down. There were a lot of stories in this plot and they were all interesting. Very well written. I Loved it! I’m sad it ended.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

The Push is probably the best-written, multiple point of view, multiple timeline, multiple character voice, utterly unpredictable mystery I've read this year.  So good!  The last quarter was a marathon and I have the elevated heartbeat on my FitBit to prove it.

I had really mixed reviews on this book. I had heard a lot about the author and actually have "The Other Wife" in my library yet to read, but when I received a copy of this from NetGalley I read it first. On the one hand, this was a book I couldn't put down if only to find out if I was right about who did what to whom. On the other hand, there's a huge amount of racism, sexism, ageism and I don't know what all "isms."

Especially in this divisive day and age, some of those things are really offensive to read about. But, if one sort of puts blinders on that and just looks at the novel from a pure perspective of it being a thriller or mystery or detective series or something along those lines, then it was a page stopping book. I started having suspicions about certain characters in the book after I had it confirmed on who had "been pushed," but I just couldn't put the book down until I found out. In the end, the author weaves about six different stories seamlessly into one.

Maybe I should have given five stars just for the fact that I read it so quickly and wanted to keep going to find out what happened to each character. Maybe the author described the couples in the terms she did so as to bring attention to the "isms." If so, she did that well because the book definitely gives the reader insight into what each character is thinking and feeling and why. And, in the end, maybe that's exactly what gets the reader to appreciate the story. At any rate, I think I'll pick up another book by Clair McGowen just to see how that goes.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with a free copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Oh read an early copy of this book for review for Netgalley. The description was intriguing, but keeping up with the numerous characters took work. That was distracting when reading about the parents.
Give this a try as it might appeal.

Six women. All going through prenatal classes finally give birth. Monica decides to through a party for everyone to look at the babies and visit.

The party starts off very awkwardly and ends with a dead body.

None of these people were the least bit fond of each other so it made no sense to me why they would get together but I’m pretty sure we all knew what was up from the start.

There was every type of -ism you can think of in this one. Age, race, sex, fat-shaming, the anti-vaxxers, And of course your liars. All of them are liars and it was hard to read.

This was a difficult one to read. The people were not the least bit interesting and all they did was pick at each other while smiling.

There just was nothing in here worth reading.

NetGalley/ November 12th, 2020 by Thomas & Mercer

Was she pushed or did she jump?
Who knew an ante-natal group could hold so many secrets? This is a page-turner of a book that had me gripped until the end. Psychological thriller, mystery and suspense all rolled into one, with sensitive handling of the issues of adoption and infertility. This is the retelling of a whodunnit in a refreshing and original way, with plenty of twists and turns. Highly recommended.

This is the story of a group of women gathered for a series pre-birth classes. They all come from different backgrounds but here for a common goal - to find out what to expect at birth, and how to care for their babies. After the classes finish and the babies are born, they are invited to a barbeque at one of the parents' home. This is where something happens that brings out the stories of each set of parents.

This was a good if not a great read which had a fabulous idea of a classic who dunnit and a cast of unlike characters, one of whom was a killer.
Interestingly we do not find out the person who has been murdered until half way through the book, which was good at keeping my interest. The story surrounds an eclectic group of people attending an ante natal group. Each of the couples are quite diverse; an older mum to be with a younger partner, a lesbian couple, a couple waiting for an overseas adoption and the wealthy couple who host the party at which one of them is “pushed”.
I guessed fairly early on one of the main twists and as I got to the end the second fell into place.
It was a good read as opposed to a great read.
Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.