Another pulse-pounding thriller from the author of the Anatomy of a Scandal, Little Disasters is a dark look at the violence of motherhood. Liz is a London pediatrician and parent, caring for her bedridden mother. Jess is an overworked mother of three, including an infant, whose marriage is on the fritz. When Jess brings her baby into the ER where her friend Liz is on duty, Liz is shocked to find the child has a skull fracture, and even more shocked when Jess's story doesn't line up with the evidence. As the police dig deeper, Liz questions if she ever really knew her friend and if the strains of motherhood always overcome even the best of women.
Little Disasters is exemplary for its cleverly constructed plot, with all the slow-burn tension and compelling twists of a signature Sarah Vaughan novel. Without falling back on a too-large cast of suspects, Vaughan still crafts an unpredictable resolution by skillfully developing her lead characters. From the first page, Liz's narration is so inviting, so casually normal, that readers can't resist going along for the ride, even as the revelations get darker and hit closer to home. The strength of these characters, the genuine urgency of their emotions and the nuances of their relationships take center stage. In this way, Vaughan carves out space even in a fast-paced page-turner to tackle haunting concerns about society's tendency to place blame on mothers. --Alice Martin, freelance writer and editor