NEW RELEASE
The Perfect Mother - Margaret Leroy (2010)
It would be enough of a nightmare to have a sick child with no conclusive diagnosis about why she can't eat, go to school or walk without pain. Imagine then being told that you are a difficult mother and that your daughter's illness is probably your fault. Based partly on a similar incident faced by the author, this novel sees Catriona - who has strived to create the perfect home life for her husband Richard, teenage stepdaughter Sinead and eight-year-old daughter Daisy - under suspicion for causing Daisy's inexplicable illness. And because her own traumatic upbringing makes her a more likely candidate for Munchausen's by proxy, Catriona starts weaving a web of deception that has even her husband - and the reader - doubting her. This is a compelling tale which illustrates just how easily facts can be twisted as evidence against you.
The Perfect Mother, by Margaret Leroy, is about a woman who must face up to a parent's worst fear and fight to keep her child. The summary says: "Catriona has the life she's always dreamed of: a loving husband, a delightful step-daughter and her own precious little girl, Daisy. When Daisy begins to feel poorly, Catriona seeks help and in doing so, is forced to look to the past and her own traumatic and abusive childhood. When Cat is accused of harming eight-year-old Daisy through Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, Cat begins to realise that the life she has now is more fragile than she could ever have imagined." Leroy reveals on her website that the story evolved from a time when her younger daughter had been ill for two years. "Like Catriona in the book, I was told by the local paediatrician that my daughter's problem was psychological, and that I was a difficult mother because I kept interrupting and speaking for my child," she says. The Perfect Mother, previously published as Postcards from Berlin, is out in February.