WHO WILL SURVIVE THE NIGHT?
A nightmare jolts Debs awake. She leaves the kids tucked up in their beds and goes downstairs. There’s a man in her kitchen, holding a knife. But it’s not an intruder. This is her husband Marc, the father of her children. A man she no longer recognises.
Once their differences were what drew them together, what turned them on. Him, the ex-army officer from a good family. Her, the fitness instructor who grew up over a pub. But now these differences grate to the point of drawing blood. Marc screams in his sleep. And Debs hardly knows the person she’s become, or why she lets him hurt her.
Neither of them is completely innocent. Neither is totally guilty. Marc is taller, stronger, and more vicious, haunted by a war he can’t forget. But he has no idea what Debs is capable of when her children’s lives are at stake…
Tina Baker, the daughter of a window cleaner and fairground traveller, worked as a journalist and broadcaster for thirty years and is probably best known as a television critic for the BBC and GMTV. After so many hours watching soaps gave her a widescreen bum, she got off it and won Celebrity Fit Club. She now avoids writing-induced DVT by working as a Fitness Instructor.
Call Me Mummy was Tina’s first novel, inspired by her own unsuccessful attempts to become a mother. Despite the grief of that, she’s not stolen a child – so far. But she does rescue cats, whether they want to be rescued or not.
I couldn’t put this down while reading it, which meant I held my breath because of it’s raw, edgy and horrific possibilities.
It’s an excellent depiction of two people who should never have got together, yet they did. The two characters Debs and Marc are not only massively ill-matched, but have no real common ground. The depiction of the drip drip of a domestic violence relationship is perfectly portrayed. I have been there and this does happen. Not everyone is an abuser who starts off with punches and injuries that can be seen.
These two have such massively different backgrounds that were it not for Debs business they might never have met. I think sometimes it’s the easiest thing to happen. When we delve into their backgrounds hers with Shirley, his with Jeanne these things were on a collision course to happen. Both a product of their environment Debs is not only grieving her Mum, but finding herself using phrases that she did. Marc has no idea how to relate to the children in particular Pat-Pat because his mother had such a bad relationship with him.
They have always been on a collision course to disaster. But who is going to be the fatality in this? Because after so many nasty little cuts that sting deep down, this is time for something more.
It seems weird to say I loved this book. But I like books that are honest and raw. That tell life in these circumstances as it is. If you can read very dark, domestic noir this will be your thing. If you read it and don’t believe it could happen, then you’re very lucky. I want to say thanks for your honesty Tina.
With thanks to Angana Narula at Viper Books and the author for the advanced reading copy of this book.
Books’n’banter 