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The Bad Mother

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Recently divorced, Tessa Parker runs a successful B&B in a seaside town. During a surprise visit from Australia, a long-lost aunt lets slip a family secret that unsettles her fragile world.

In shock, and feeling betrayed by her whole family, Tessa confides in her ex- husband just as he reveals he has a new woman in his life.

Struck unexpectedly by jealousy; balancing her own turmoil against the demands of parenting, Tessa tries to trace her birth father, with devastating results. Yet she fails to see how this is a crucial moment in her children’s lives. If she gets things wrong, the consequences could be fatal.

368 pages, Paperback

First published March 14, 2013

49 people are currently reading
456 people want to read

About the author

Isabelle Grey

19 books102 followers
I write the DI Grace Fisher series of crime novels, set in Colchester, Essex. 'The Special Girls', the third in the series, was a Sunday Times Crime Novel of the Month. The first three books in the series are 'Good Girls Don't Die', 'Shot Through the Heart' and 'The Special Girls. The murder detective's fourth investigation, 'Wrong Way Home', was a Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month.

Quercus also publish my novels of psychological suspense, 'Out of Sight' and the Amazon bestseller 'The Bad Mother', as well as historical fiction by my new writing persona, V.B. Grey.

As a screenwriter I've contributed episodes to such television crime dramas as 'The Bill', 'Wycliffe', 'Rosemary & Thyme' and 'Midsomer Murders' and, with Jimmy McGovern, an episode of the Bafta and International Emmy award-winning BBC series 'Accused'.

I enjoy writing crime and suspense because such gripping and tightly-woven stories offer a chance to explore how secrets come back to haunt us, the chilling emotions of why people kill, how love can go terrifyingly wrong, and the psychology of what we most fear.

I was born within the sound of Bow Bells in London's East End, grew up in Manchester, lived for ten years on what was once a tidal island at the edge of the Romney Marsh, and now live and work in north London.

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5 stars
207 (22%)
4 stars
250 (27%)
3 stars
340 (36%)
2 stars
103 (11%)
1 star
23 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
Profile Image for Jayne Thorold.
104 reviews3 followers
November 29, 2014
One word to describe this novel by Isabelle Grey....mundane. It started off nowhere and it ended nowhere. Though well written it was generic in its story telling, no surprises,no plot twists. Tessa wasn't particularly a 'bad mother' just a tad selfish, Erin wasn't a 'bad mother' either, just confused. I was really waiting for a brilliant plot twist at the end, and all I got was the generic 'happy ever afters'. To use another word in conclusion the story was blah.
Profile Image for Zarina.
1,131 reviews153 followers
May 15, 2013
Tessa Parker's teenage son Mitch has gone missing and as she admits to the police that she is responsible for this terrible event, scenes of mental and perhaps even physical abuse quickly come to mind that would explain the novel's ominous title: The Bad Mother.

Before the reader discovers why Tessa believes she is to blame for whatever terrible ordeal has fallen upon her son, the story is rewound to a time where her life still seemed reasonably pleasant and straightforward.

However, both Tessa and the reader soon find out that everything is not quite as carefree as it seems. Her marriage has been falling apart for years without her paying attention to it, but when even her children know that their parents are split up and as her husband is ready to move on, Tessa realises she's been so focussed on her work in the family-owned bed and breakfast that mostly everything else in her life has taken a back-seat.

Just when she is at her most fragile, a long-lost relative arrives into town, turning Tessa's world upside down with the revelation of a long buried family secret. What follows is a story of self-discovery for Tessa as she tries to piece together who she really is and what this newly found information means not only for herself but also her for her parents and two children.

It's an intriguing journey for the reader and a difficult one for Tessa, particularly when she starts looking for more and more answers to questions she didn't even realise she had before her aunt came to visit.
While I was swept away by Tessa's journey, I was ultimately disappointed by the novel's abrupt finish. When we finally return to the moment that Mitch has gone missing the mystery is swiftly unravelled, almost as if author Isabelle Grey lost interest in his case along the way and tried to wrap it up in the quickest way possible, which was very anticlimactic to say the least.

In fact, despite starting the novel with story of Mitch, he doesn't feature heavily throughout the novel nor does his storyline seem the obvious one to dedicate both start and finish on. Instead it should have been focussed on Tessa and the discovery about her family, in particular the contact she's had with someone who may not have been honest in their intentions for her. But that storyline is dismissed off at the end as well, as if her decision to pursue contact will not have any implications on her future, which it almost certainly will.

The Bad Mother is well worth a read for Tessa's story of self-discovery, as it's an enthralling and often surprising journey for both the character and the reader. It is just a shame that an overall very gripping and well-written novel is hampered by a loss of focus and a deflating ending.


Many thanks to Quercus for providing me with a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.
Profile Image for Sharon Goodwin.
869 reviews146 followers
June 10, 2013
I reviewed Isabelle Grey’s debut Out of Sight in September 2012 which was a keeper for me, so when I was offered The Bad Mother to review, I was eager to start reading.

We begin with a prologue. It’s a crisis scene, four months later than the story begins. We are led up to that point, and beyond, from Chapter One.

We get to know Tessa’s background before the unexpected caller is on the doorstep of the B & B. The next day, Tessa is at her parent’s house when the caller visits and is revealed as Aunt Erin – sister to her mother, Pamela. There is tension from Hugo (her father) but joy from Pamela.

The secret that is revealed makes sense to Tessa as she feels as if there has always been a barrier in her family life which is why she has never fully engaged with ex-husband Sam. The first inkling we get that Tessa doesn’t deal with situations is when she finds out about Sam and his girlfriend. Their children have known for a long time …

Alongside Tessa’s relationship with her parents/father, is son Mitch’s growing relationship with wealthy teen Tamsin. Mitch is such a creative and sensitive character. The feelings and emotions in this first love relationship are very true to life. He’s the first one to notice that sister Lauren’s eating habits have changed and takes on much more than the son/sibling role in the family. His observations of people are very accurate!

A regular guest at the B & B has connections that helps Tessa trace her birth father. It is very transparent that Tessa is lied to and the danger she is putting herself and her family in. I did find myself wanting to shake her! but Grey is only showing us how easy it is to put our gut feelings aside and believe what we want to. Tessa is so desperate to find a place where she belongs that she takes everything at face value.

Grey has growing tension throughout The Bad Mother with a third person narrative from Tessa, Pamela and Mitch’s perspective. Mitch is my favourite character and Tessa provoked the strongest emotions in me. Just like Patrick in Out of Sight! I wavered between empathy and not liking her at all. To me she was very self-centred throughout. It’s good to have characters that provoke strong emotions … this isn’t a negative!

I didn’t connect with this story as much as Grey’s debut. I would recommend you add to your reading list (the relationships and the building tension/suspense are fabulous).

The Bad Mother is about secrets, the holding apart, a family scarred … and how that passes on to the next generation.

I would like to thank Margot at Quercus for a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Profile Image for Holly.
38 reviews4 followers
January 29, 2014
Ugh, this novel just felt like really incessant whining about something I felt was a non-issue? It's a shame because I thought in general it was well written, but it seemed like Tessa was being melodramatic for a 30 year old-ish woman. I don't know, it seemed rather like a soap too - cramming a million issues into one space: divorce, alcoholism, adoption, murder, comfort eating, etc etc. Too much.
Profile Image for Jenny L.
777 reviews5 followers
February 22, 2014
Very disappointing. I began reading this book with high hopes, it has all the ingredients for what should have been a page turner. Yet it just somehow failed to hit the mark for me. I think partly it was the main character, Tessa, for whom I felt very little sympathy or empathy. All I can say, is that she, Tessa, was quite frankly a fairly appalling mother. Even though this story is about more than the one generation.
Profile Image for Books 'n' All  Promotions.
844 reviews40 followers
March 18, 2014
I enjoyed the book albeit a bit unbelievable in parts. The ending/ final chapter was very disappointing it left many unanswered questions. I appreciate that this sort of book is ideal for book clubs but I am a lone reader and don't like books with questions left unanswered so I won't be reading any more by this author
215 reviews1 follower
July 31, 2014
Well
I think the story was good. It covered many issues including divorce and finding out your true identity. I personally think the main character is a very selfish person and does her own thing with blinkered eyes to how it affects her family. Good for a book club as has lots of layers. It is hard to decide who, in the story is actually the bad mother.
Profile Image for Loredana Mariana Bublitchi.
1,139 reviews74 followers
March 18, 2019
I’m really sorry to say this, but didn’t like this book at all :(...don’t even know what to say...:(
Profile Image for Bernadette Robinson.
1,005 reviews15 followers
November 30, 2014
I gave this a 3.5 stars.

This was a well written story that I was given to read for my Library Reading Group, I was disappointed that I couldn't make the meeting as I felt that it would prove to be quite a good book to discuss at the time that I read it.

However, I am sad to say that the story hasn't stuck with me that well at all. It's only a few weeks since I finished it and I'm struggling to remember that much about it. Having just read some of the synopsis on Goodreads it has brought some of it back to me.

Tessa's world is turned upside down when secrets in her past are revealed by her Aunt. Life often has a way of turning everything that we once believed to be true on it's head. Every family has secrets and it's how families deal with secrets that can impact on our day to day life. As Tessa's world is turned on it's head when secrets are revealed, can she can cope with the revelations and make the right choices or will the past come back to haunt her?

With teenage children of her own Tessa needs to learn to put them first, but how can she when her world is turned upside down and her emotions are running high.

Some secrets in our past are better left in the past, but for Tessa some are about to be revealed. How will these secrets impact on the rest of the Family though?

To find the answers to these questions, you will need to read the book. I enjoyed it when I read it, but doubt that it'll stay with me for long. Some of Tessa's actions I felt were a little selfish, but how would we have dealt with some of the secrets had they been revealed to us?



Profile Image for Margaret Sutherland.
Author 12 books10 followers
May 1, 2015
"The Bad Mother", a novel by Isabelle Grey, is deliberately titled to intrigue. In fact, the character Tessa Parker is an excellent mother to her two teenagers. It is she who blames herself harshly when her son runs away from home. Tessa's perceived failings and inattention to her family, however, seem excusable, given that she has only just found out she was adopted. To loving parents, yes. Somehow, Tessa tracks her origins, discovering her real father is serving jail time. Even so, she can't resisting meeting him, unwittingly offering naive trust to a dubious man. The psychological tension level in this book is maintained very well. Along with Tessa, we suffer the confusion, misplaced hope and fear that erode her confidence as she searches for the truth.
This book may not be a plot-based cliffhanger, but I found its forward impetus quite dramatic as Tessa is mired in more and more confusion. It is the story of a woman whose world falls apart when none of her links prove reliable. Reaching for at least one certain connection, her real father, she is drawn into a world of crime and punishment. Her trust is abused and she has to face painful choices. We may become adults, but this book suggests we will always have more growing-up to do.
























Profile Image for Mireya.
358 reviews11 followers
November 3, 2013
"The Bad Mother" tells the story of many mothers. Was any of them bad? Tessa, Pamela, Erin, Avril... Three generations of women who come together as a result of the unplanned circumstances in which Tessa is born. It is the discovery of long kept secrets and coming to terms with them upon the disappearance of Tessa's oldest son Mitch. A very well compelled story that keeps the reader engaged and longing to know more.
Profile Image for Suzy.
244 reviews1 follower
July 19, 2014
A good book about a mother going through a messy divorce, and feeling guilty about the effect its having on her children, probably relatable to most mothers going through the same situation, a very good read.
Profile Image for Serena Davis-morrison.
18 reviews1 follower
February 2, 2014
was a lovely read. Only take so long has I has no phone for a little bit n started a new book (real book) and had to finish that 1st. I love this book and like that yes we can all get carried away in our own life's that yes sometimes we do have to stop and listen.
Profile Image for Clw.
40 reviews1 follower
October 29, 2013
I enjoyed the characters in this book and it left you thinking about the issues it raised. Nice gentle story.
76 reviews
November 11, 2013
Very well constructed book. Surprising, complex and with very well written characters. Highly recommended
Profile Image for Sarah.
293 reviews3 followers
January 28, 2015
Really enjoyed this. Interesting characters, and an original tale. An observation of family ties and relationships which kept me gripped til the end.
Profile Image for Michael Rumney.
788 reviews6 followers
August 31, 2017
Starts off well with a well constructed inciting incident but then drifts into mundane territory as Tessa discovers her real father is serving a sentence for murder. A family drama without much drama I found I couldn't care less about the family members.
The better chapters were those involving Tessa and her father within the prison and even then I found her too trusting of her father Roy Weaver.
Grey has written for TV and this felt like a ridiculous soap opera crammed into 300 odd pages.
162 reviews1 follower
October 20, 2018
I really didn’t enjoy this book, I found it highly unbelievable and I couldn’t stand the main character. For me it was like there could have been a good storyline there, but it was all too shallow and skirted over difficult topics and then tied them all up neatly with a ribbon at the end!
Profile Image for Hannah.
8 reviews
July 8, 2019
To my surprise I actually really enjoyed this book. The characters were all well developed and the plot well considered. There were moments when I struggled with the main characters naïveté, but as the story progressed, her character evolved.
I would read more by this author.
10 reviews
February 20, 2020
I felt this book was lacking and never really got anywhere. It seems as if the story would build up to something....but then nothing ever came of it. The characters werent totally likeable, especially the main character. I couldn't connect or sympathise with her at all. Frustrating and a bit Meh!!
Profile Image for Kayley Stannard.
20 reviews2 followers
August 24, 2018
Slightly disappointing

Don’t get me wrong was a good read. There just wasn’t enough unexpected twists to the story as I wanted.
Profile Image for CLAIR Withers.
135 reviews
November 29, 2020
I throughly enjoyed reading this book. Lovely story all characters connecting.
Tessa certainly learns a lot about her past. Really feel it could continue. Many thanks
Profile Image for Liz.
309 reviews2 followers
September 22, 2022
A good read, did any of the mothers do the wrong thing?
Profile Image for Helen Thomas.
127 reviews1 follower
April 3, 2024
Readable but the main character is so gullible it s hard to take her seriously
Profile Image for Emma.
175 reviews
August 27, 2024
Not one of her best and the story has peaks, troughs and cliched. Not bad but not great either.
Profile Image for Cleopatra  Pullen.
1,567 reviews322 followers
August 11, 2013
I'd been looking forward to reading the Bad Mother as I'd really enjoyed Isabelle Grey's debut novel Out of Sight but unfortunately although interesting in places this book didn't quite deliver.

Tessa owns and runs a B&B which she inherited from her maternal Grandmother Averil along with a dolls house that has always been kept for show. Tessa is already going through a hard time following the gradual separation from her husband Sam whilst coping with two teenage children, Mitch and Lauren, when a family secret is revealed that causes Tessa to question who she is.

The story is intriguing and it raises a number of good points about how we define who we are but far too many of these simply do not come to a satisfactory conclusion. I also had problems with the characterisation in this book; Mitch the seventeen year old son simply did not strike me as a credible character, him describing what he was doing and why meant that I always felt one step removed from his thoughts along with being convinced that's not how boys of that age think! The main theme of this book is mothering; with distracted, addicted and absent mothers featuring the key to the whole story is Averil's mothering. As a reader, and a mother, I was left pondering can one decision make you a bad mother?

I left the book wondering what comes next as there were a number of loose ends, this isn't necessarily a bad thing as that is what life is like sometimes.
Profile Image for Lynda Kelly.
2,216 reviews109 followers
March 24, 2014
I much preferred this one to Out Of Sight although it still didn't really grip me enough that it was unputdownable !!
It seemed to be full of bad mothers, I thought. Tessa got on my nerves-I thought she was a selfcentred cow most of the time and her daughter's attitude left a lot to be desired, also. The mother I liked the most in it was Pamela. One mother featured appeared and stirred up a whole heap of trouble then buggered off. So they all seemed to be pretty selfish and not very likable women at all.
The family certainly kept their share of secrets, I must say, but they didn't appear to learn anything from the past to take into their futures. There seemed to be quite a lot of loose ends left as well.
The author kept writing Ok with a small K which I found irritating and there were a couple of random hyphens thrown in here and there (uncom-plicatedly/plat-form)and cannons was spelt as canons more than once. However, she DOES use apostrophes properly which is exceedingly rare these days. I really liked the cover on this book, too.


Author 1 book2 followers
May 2, 2015
I enjoyed this book, the character Tessa discovers that she was adopted, her Aunt who lives in Australia comes to visit but Tessa soon learns that the Aunt is infact her mother, the person whom she thought is her mother turns out to be her Aunt. The story explores how she feels about this and how it also affects her two teenage children who are also going through their own growing pains and their parents separation. Tessa decides to track down her natural father and finds he is in prison for murder. This books explores lots of emotions and I felt there could easily be a sequel in regards to Tessa's father.
Profile Image for Julie Watkins.
105 reviews
September 27, 2013
I found this book quite a disappointing read. who was the bad mother? Tessa the lead? she was certainly flawed and at times unlikeable. I found her selfish and secretive. Pamela who adopted her off her sister? flawed again, secret alcoholic, had neglected her husband and marriage cos she couldn't cope with what she had done. Erin the birth mother? more interested in her dogs. all characters were lacking. the book disappointed glad it was bought at a cheap price
Profile Image for Louise Hill.
122 reviews5 followers
November 11, 2013
This book was okay, it was better that I got it for about 50p from Amazon!
I liked the basis of this story, just some of the storylines were a bit far fetched and the main character Tessa wasn't a 'bad mother', just self centered.
My favourite character was Mitch as he seemed the most down to earth character, and actually saw people for what they were, rather than hiding, and denying the true characteristics of certain characters. it was a good read though.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews

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