Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Categories
Thriller / suspense fiction

THE MISTAKE

Wendy James

Jodi Garrow is a respectable middle-class wife and mother: married to a successions lawyer in a university town, raising her two teenage children, working on various charities, her life appears to be a rather dull open book. But when evidence suddenly comes to light that she gave birth to a child twenty years ago, a child that seems to have vanished into thin air, Jodi's life changes forever. When the police instigate a nationwide search for the missing child, Jodi is put under intense media scrutiny. Suddenly regarded as the "most hated woman in Australia", Jodi is forced to confront both the reality of her present and the truth of her past.

By all accounts, Jodie Garrow leads a normal life: her husband is a prominent lawyer, her children attend a distinguished private school, and she has a lovely home in a lovely neighborhood. Everything seems just perfect. Until she’s recognized by a person from a past she’d rather forget. When Jodie was a teenager, she gave birth to a baby girl after a one-night stand. Her boyfriend at the time—the man she would later marry—was studying abroad and never knew. Confronted by the nurse that was on-duty that night, questions start to arise about the fate of that child. Jodie insists that she gave the baby up for adoption but her story has holes in it. Before she knows it, Jodie is at the center of a nationwide police investigation and media blitz. Her neighbors, friends, and even family start to suspect that something sinister happened the night the baby was born. Jodie is the only one who knows the truth. But will she be able to live with the consequences? Wendy James was born in Sydney and her first novel, Out of the Silence, won the 2006 Ned Kelly Award for first crime novel, and was short-listed for the Nita May Dobbie Award for Women's Writing. Her writing has been published in literary journals, magazines and newspapers. Wendy lives in Armidale NSW with her husband and children.

Available products
Book Published 2012-03-01 by Michael Joseph

Comments

This book is an absolutely compelling read. One of the first things I really liked about this story was how quickly it got to the point, without any drawn out lead up. Jodie Garrow has been harbouring a secret for almost twenty five years and, as often happens, it is revealed in the most unlikely way – through a series of unusual events that all thread together to create a personal disaster. Read more...

The complexity of James’s protagonist forces the reader to consider their own assumptions based on appearance, class and circumstance. A stunning novel, the tension builds as James moves both the story and the characters towards an uncertain conclusion. This is a thought provoking novel that explores themes that provide and insight into contemporary life. Part psychological/crime thriller, part family drama, The Mistake defies genre conventions and simply delivers a compelling story. Read more...

James has not made sentimental slop of this narrative (though the cover might suggest this). She keeps it sharp, and cleverly avoids any emotional quicksand. Read more...

The Mistake is a knockout read by award-winning Australian author Wendy James, with a plot that will haunt you long after the final pages. Read more...

To say I enjoyed THE MISTAKE would not be quite accurate but only because I spent a good deal of my reading time either spluttereringly angry at some of the horrid, judgemental characters in it or deeply sad at the realism of the wider society the book depicts. But to say I didn’t enjoy the book would give entirely the wrong impression too because I found it so engrossing that at several points I had to be physically dragged away from it in order to attend to real life obligations. There is a lot to both like and admire about this book. Read more...