Like Mother, Like Daughter by Kimberly McCreight

Synopsis

A daughter races to uncover her mother’s secret life in the wake of her disappearance in this thriller.

When Cleo, a student at NYU, arrives late for dinner at her childhood home in Brooklyn, she finds food burning in the oven and no sign of her mother, Kat. Then Cleo discovers her mom’s bloody shoe under the sofa. Something terrible has happened.

But what? The polar opposite of Cleo, whose “out of control” emotions and “unsafe” behavior have created a seemingly unbridgeable rift between mother and daughter, Kat is the essence of Park Slope perfection: a happily married, successful corporate lawyer. Or so Cleo thinks.

Kat has been lying. She’s not just a lawyer; she’s her firm’s fixer. She’s damn good at it, too. Growing up in a dangerous group home taught her how to think fast, stay calm under pressure, and recognize a real threat when she sees one. And in the days leading up her disappearance, Kat has become aware of multiple threats: demands for money from her unfaithful soon-to-be ex-husband; evidence that Cleo has slipped back into a relationship that’s far riskier than she understands; and menacing anonymous messages from her past—all of which she’s kept hidden from Cleo . . .

Like Mother, Like Daughter is a thrilling novel of emotional suspense that questions the damaging fictions we cling to and the hard truths we avoid. Above all, it’s a love story between a mother and a daughter, each determined to save the other before it’s too late.

Audiobook review

4,5 stars

 Like Mother, Like Daughter, is a very good thriller where we follow two main characters.

The first one is Kate a mother who has disappeared, leaving behind a puddle of blood and a shoe in her kitchen.

The second one is Cleo, her daughter determined to find who kidnapped or killed her mother.

All along we will have different possibilities to follow.

-The first one to emerge is the husband.

Kate was in the process of divorcing her husband Aiden, and we know that Aiden needs money, a lot of money. Three millions that Kate had in her possession. Money is always a good motivation to kill someone right?

-The second possibility lies in Kate’s past.

We learn that she has been adopted at 14 years old, but before that she lived in a very, very bad foster home. She obviously went through traumatic events, even if we don’t know what exactly. Someone from her past is threatening her, also asking for more money.

-Another possibility is Cleo’s former boyfriend, Kyle.

Kyle is a drug dealer. When Kate learned about his drug dealing habit, she didn’t hesitate to threaten to expose Kyle.  Of course a drug dealer being threatened is never a good combination and always a good motivation to kill someone right?

-And finally,  there is another possibility because we know that Kate being a partner at law firm is working on a case where high profile pharmaceutical firm developed a medicine that can have harmed fetuses and endangered  countless lives.

She has been tasked to look  into it and will uncover some unsavory facts, even what could possibly be a murder.

All along we switch between these different tropes and even if I was really trying to guess who killed or kidnapped Kate, I never got it right. Not until the end and I really loved being always on my toes,  trying to guess what happened.

At the center of the story was the love of a mother for her daughter and the love of a daughter for her mother, even if they were vastly different and seemingly at odds with each other.

 I loved seeing Cleo doing all that she could to find what happened to a mother, discovering who Kate really was in the process and mending the gap between mother and daughter.

This is a very good Kimberly MacCreight once again and I will read all her other books!

Thanks for reading.

Sophie