One of my favorites for 2020. This book has it all. Mystery, drama, you name it, this book delivers.
Dont miss this one!

Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free, it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

What an absolutely amazing book! This is the first book I have read by Claire McGowan and am looking forward to reading more of her work. I adored the six couples in this book - loved how diverse the group was and how they came together only because they were all expecting babies. I could not put this down and read it in one day. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy. I cannot wait to recommend this fantastic suspenseful book!

What a deliciously clever story - Christiesque in its limited number of suspects and a pair of investigators who are determined to get to the truth.

I thoroughly enjoyed the structure of the story and the nicely drawn characters, and although I sort of guessed what had happened, the last couple of reveals were very well handled and the ending seemed to be most appropriate.

I've not read Claire McGowan before but I can thoroughly recommend this book.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The push is a strangely compelling read,not your usual psychological thriller more of a suspense type read! Centred around a varied group of couples attending a baby group led by the enigmatic Nina, despite the differences amongst the attendees of the group they all come together for a summer barbecue/party where they witness a tragic event! Each couple is thoroughly investigated and it becomes clear they all have differing versions of the event and something to hide! Proving that many a relationship is not what it appears! An entertaining read.
Thank you net galley for this early read.

I enjoyed this excellent thriller very much. The storyline was exciting and kept me entertained all the way. Highly recommended!

A compelling thriller with a focus on pregnancy and motherhood
Lots of twists (although many were foreseeable), This was a page turner and definitely kept my interest

In a sense, it could have been a great story. However, mid way through the book, there was no longer any mystery/thriller. It's only the unveiling of all the characters and the unfortunate event. With that being said, there are so many characters that it's hard to fully developed all of them to where you feel like you know them. I think if the characters were more developed it would make the mystery of it all much better.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

‘The Push’ by Claire McGowan focuses on a disparate group of people whose only link is their state of pregnancy. Taught by an increasingly strange ante-natal teacher, Nina, they gather weekly in a local hall to be scared, humiliated and generally undermined by this woman. Strange and not altogether believable although one could argue that first-time mothers may be too worried to question anomalies, perhaps feeling vulnerable or insecure.
Whilst McGowan’s main focus is on charity fund raiser Jax and her significantly younger partner, Aaron, she does manage to balance the narrative so that we remain interested in all of the other couples, even if some of them are rather sketchily drawn. There is no doubt that readers will be drawn in to the story; we learn early on that one of the women has met an untimely death and the police have to work out whether or not she has been pushed or whether she slipped and fell at the party Monica is hosting to celebrate the birth of the babies. What is clear is that pretty much everyone has something to hide!
This isn’t the most stretching of murder mysteries. It’s not difficult to work out who the deceased is even though McGowan doesn’t actually name her for most of the story. Likewise, the ‘twists’ are easy to predict. However, whilst further development of the couples’ relationships would have been interesting, this is still an entertaining, cleverly structured and well written thriller.
My thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

A classic locked room mystery thriller the likes of Agatha Christie. How well do you know your friends? A close knit gathering in a luxurious house ends in murder. How could be responsible? There are so many twists and turns until a thrilling climax that unveils someone no one expected.

I DNF this book. I will pick it up again and try later. I struggle with fertility issues and the investigator just got to me

I always love her books and I will come back to this for sure.

The premise was so intriguing. I love books with a contained number of suspects and the slow process of eliminating who's not guilty. However, I figured out the ending about halfway through the book. I feel like I can't even categorize it as a thriller since the second half of the book was more just watching everything I knew play out. With a little more suspense and a few more twists, this book could have been great. Unfortunately, it just didn't pull out the punches I'd hoped it would. That said -- there are some interesting characters and is worth a read as long as you aren't expecting a huge surprise ending.

Thank you for allowing me to discover such a good new author for my repertoire! Great plot line, interesting characters, I will recommend to friends and family.

DS Alice Hegarty is called in to investigate what appears to be an accidental death at a party. The party goers are all recent parents and they’ve gotten together to cut loose and relax a little, but when one of them goes over the balcony, the party is over. Hegarty doesn’t believe the fall was an accident and begins questioning the other party guests and discovers that none of these couples had an easy or typical path to parenthood. Is one of them keeping a secret worth killing for? You better believe it!