Love, Mom is an engaging novel of suspense about a daughter trying to unravel the truth about her dead mother, a successful author who died under mysterious circumstances. Plot twists and a quick pace make Love, Mom an enjoyable read/listen.

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I’ll begin with a Love, Mom summary.

Mackenzie is doing well as a college student and is a talented writer. One could say the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Her mother, writing under the pen name E. V. Renge – an anagram of “revenge” – is a bestselling writer of disturbing revenge-based novels. It seems that Mackenzie inherited her talent.

When Mackenzie’s mother dies in an accidental fall, the police view it as slightly suspicious and open an investigation. Even worse, Mackenzie is waiting to feel grief for the woman who raised her, but she feels nothing. As the story unfolds, the reader learns theirs wasn’t a close relationship. The mother kept Mackenzie at arm’s length and was overly wrapped up in her own success.

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Soon after her mother’s death, mysterious letters begin to show up from Mackenzie’s “number one fan” and they’re signed “Love, Mom.” The letters are always hand delivered, and Mackenzie never catches the sender in the act. Nevertheless, Mackenzie comes to cherish the letters because they are pages from her mom’s journal, written when she was pregnant with Mackenzie. Many of the entries were written to Mackenzie and they show a tender side of her mother Mackenzie didn’t know she had. They also contain clues that hint at a deep mystery. Something about her parents’ past seems off.

Mackenzie and her best friend EJ – a computer whiz – investigate what happened 20 years ago, and when the Internet runs dry of information, they visit the small Nebraska town where her parents lived while attending college. What they learn there shakes the foundation of everything Mackenzie thought she knew about her parents. And as they continue to dig into the past, they find even more surprises.

I’ll stop here because I don’t want to give too much away.

I really enjoyed Love, Mom. The plot was interesting and so evenly paced that I never got bored or overwhelmed. There were several good plot twists scattered throughout the book, and it was fun to discover the secrets of the past along with Mackenzie.

I didn’t care for Mackenzie – the primary narrator – at first. She has a slightly snarky cynicism that put me off. But I got used to it and she turned out to be a sort of hero in the way she persistently pursued the truth. And she and EJ were cute together.

The readers did a nice job and, thankfully, women read the women’s parts and men read the men’s parts. As a side note, if you’ve never listened to an audio book with someone else, I highly recommend it. I listen to them with my home health care aides, who are by my side 24/7, and it’s fun to share reactions with each other.

I think anyone who likes a good suspense novel will enjoy Love, Mom.

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