Like this year's release, Her Daughter’s Mother, Mother Knows Best (Crooked Lane Books, September 10, 2019) is another medical thriller that deals with a woman’s difficulty trying to conceive. Both are excellent.
Here, Claire Abrams still grieves for the loss of her son, who died as a result of a genetic mutation she passed along. Desperate for another child, she seeks the help of progressive fertility doctor, Robert Nash, and his brilliant post-doc, Jillian. Together (and behind Claire’s husband’s back), they create the world’s first three-parent child. This could usher in a new world in which inherited diseases are eradicated.
Their experiment is illegal, however, and when authorities are alerted to it, Claire and Robert are forced on the run. Jillian is sent to prison.
Ten years later, Abby is an extraordinarily healthy child. But she has many questions—why on earth are her parents so reclusive and secretive? She begins to look deeper into her family and recognizes something isn’t right.
And when Jillian returns to the picture, driven mad by her destroyed life, even bigger problems surface for the family.
Mother Knows Best is told in Claire’s, Jillian’s, and Abby’s points of view, in both the part and present day.
Where Her Daughter’s Mother deals with IVF, which is pretty much accepted in the medical community (though not without its own set of ethical questions for some), Mother Knows Best takes a look at a much different side of reproductive medicine: genetically engineering human embryos. And though its function here is for seemingly benign reasons rather than creating a “designer baby,” it’s clear that there could be far reaching implications. Peikoff uses her degree in bioethics to create a quite believable tale of the lengths one woman will go to bring life into the world without suffering.
What I really liked is that Peikoff handles the issue gracefully. There is an even-handed portrayal of both sides to genetic engineering, forcing readers to draw their own conclusions about this heated ethical dilemma.
She also presents several characters that are easy to hate/love. Claire’s motivations are easy to understand. You feel for her grief and her desire for motherhood. With Abby, it’s easy to empathize with her frustrations and the fear that she could easily become media fodder. Jillian is despicable.
The characters I found hardest to get a hold on were Ethan (Claire’s husband) and Robert. Ethan’s high handed morality at the expense of his wife (though she doesn’t communicate well with him either), causes destruction, and I really didn’t connect with, or entirely believe, his change of heart. Likewise, I didn't entirely buy Robert’s two personalities—the way he is with Jillian, and with Claire.
But overall, this one was great--it's really hard to put down.
Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing this review copy. I recommend this one as a quick read and a creative medical drama.