Call Me Mummy by Tina Baker #bookreview

On my blog today, I’m sharing my thoughts on the debut thriller by Tina Baker, Call Me Mummy.

BLURB

THIS MOTHER’S DAY YOU WILL CALL HER MUMMY

Glamorous, beautiful Mummy has everything a woman could want. Except for a daughter of her very own. So when she sees Kim – heavily pregnant, glued to her phone and ignoring her eldest child in a busy shop – she does what anyone would do. She takes her. But foul-mouthed little Tonya is not the daughter that Mummy was hoping for.

As Tonya fiercely resists Mummy’s attempts to make her into the perfect child, Kim is demonised by the media as a ‘scummy mummy’, who deserves to have her other children taken too. Haunted by memories of her own childhood and refusing to play by the media’s rules, Kim begins to spiral, turning on those who love her.

Though they are worlds apart, Mummy and Kim have more in common than they could possibly imagine. But it is five-year-old Tonya who is caught in the middle…

MY THOUGHTS

Prepare to be gripped. Call Me Mummy is completely and utterly addictive. If this is Tina Baker’s first novel, then I can’t wait to read what she writes next. This book will definitely stick in your mind, and I love the way how Tina Baker writes. Her writing drew me into the story right away, and I couldn’t put the book down.

The chapters in this book are short, and snappy and that’s something I always really like in a crime thriller. When I think I need to put the book down so I can do something, I think, oh, one more chapter won’t hurt. Then before I know it, I’ve finished the book.

Call Me Mummy is a dark crime thriller. Although it tells a story that has been told before, it does so differently, and I thought it was really compelling. While out shopping, Kim, who is heavily pregnant, loses sight of her daughter, Tonya. Every parent has a story of when they lost sight of their child for a few moments. I can remember running away from my mum in a busy shopping centre when I was small and the fear setting in next when I couldn’t find her. But Tonya doesn’t come back, and she isn’t found. Another woman, desperate for a child, has set her eyes on Tonya, and she has a plan for the girl. A police investigation begins, and there is a huge amount of interest in the case.

Kim, Tonya’s mother, is a really compelling character. After her daughter’s disappearance, she comes under a lot of scrutiny from the press and the public. People say hurtful and disgusting things about her on online forums, and the press are quick to lap it up There may be a lot of readers who dislike Kim when they read this book. Although she desperately wants her daughter to be found, she isn’t portrayed in a very good light. She swears a lot, but this is just part of everyday speech in her family, which her children have also picked up on. But aside from this, I could see that she cares about her daughter, even if she isn’t the perfect parent, as some people might say.

I don’t want to give too much away here, but I found that I did feel sorry for Tonya’s kidnapper. Tina Baker builds a very intriguing backstory. You can see why they have acted in the way that they did. But as the novel progressed, I started to get fearful for Tonya. You can sense that things can go either way for her, and it made for really gripping reading.

Call Me Mummy is an outstanding debut, and I finished it in just a couple of days. Crime fans, you need to add this to your reading pile for 2021. I’ll certainly be adding whatever Tina Baker writes next to my TBR pile straight away.

Publisher: Viper

Publication date: 25th February 2021

Print length: 383 pages

Call Me Mummy is available to buy:

Amazon UK Kobo Waterstones