Such a Good Mom Book Review

Domestic Thriller With a Few Surprises

Such a Good Mom by Julia Spiro is a slow-burn domestic thriller set on Martha’s Vineyard. We meet new mom Brynn Nelson, who is struggling with her postpartum mental health while feeling out of place in her community.

Raised in the working-class part of the island, she now lives near her husband Ross’s family in a wealthy, tight-knit community. She feels like a fish out of water, isolated and disconnected from her old life.

New Mom Stretched to Her Limit

Ross works for his father’s construction business, where the pressure to perform is intense. Juggling demanding clients and his father’s recent retirement, he’s barely around to help with the baby. His family steps in to help, despite being the reason he’s not home in the first place. Brynn is trying to hold everything together when tragedy strikes: a family friend is found dead, and Ross becomes the prime suspect.

Truth Is Hard to Find

Brynn is distraught and confused. Determined to prove his innocence, she attempts to solve the murder to clear her husband’s name. But the more she digs, the less it all makes sense. She grapples with exhaustion, doubt, and an emotional fog that makes everything harder to trust, especially herself.

Put on Your Sherlock Hat

Spiro puts the reader into Brynn’s shoes … the confusion, the doubt, the fear, and the obsession. It’s a murder mystery that keeps you guessing. You’ll want to solve it right along with her. Great read for fans of domestic thrillers.

I received this Advance Reader Copy of Such a Good Mom from Minotaur Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher’s Description

Bestselling author Julia Spiro’s Such a Good Mom is a brilliant standalone mystery that makes for the perfect beach read. In the heat of summer, a murder on Martha’s Vineyard rocks one new mom to the core, leaving her to search for answers.

With a healthy newborn baby, a devoted husband, a successful career, and a busy life on Martha’s Vineyard, Brynn Nelson should be the happiest she’s ever been. But Brynn is struggling. Her husband, Ross, grows more distant by the day, and the challenges and exhaustion of postpartum make Brynn feel like she’s slowly losing pieces of herself to motherhood. Pieces that she might never get back.

But it’s summer on the Vineyard, a beacon for wealthy visitors, and a place so beautiful that it seems immune to tragedy and crime. Except for locals, like Brynn, who know all too well that tragedy can strike at any point. And this time, it hits close to home when a friend of the family is found washed ashore. Dead. And Brynn’s already hectic life is turned upside down when Ross is arrested for the crime.

Left reeling with more questions than answers, Brynn’s only path forward is to find out who really killed Cecelia Buckley, even if it means it was her husband. She’s no longer sure who she can trust. And with the dizzying, endless cycle of sleepless nights, diapers, and bottles, Brynn’s not even sure she can trust herself. She’s not sure of anything anymore, but she won’t stop until she finds the truth.

Bestselling author Julia Spiro is known for writing characters readers instantly connect with. With Such a Good Mom, Spiro brings the real and layered Martha’s Vineyard to life through the eyes of a new mom trying to get her family out of the eye of the storm that is a murder investigation.

*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you purchase through links on this site at no additional cost to you.