I was looking forward to reading this psychological thriller from Samantha Hayes as I enjoyed ‘Someone else’s son’ and really liked the rather mixed up protagonist mother. ‘Until you’re mine’ took me much longer to get into. It’s about a woman who is out to create her family by destroying yours. There is a gripping prologue about a woman obsessed with having a baby which makes an excellent insight of what is to come. The main body of the novel is told in three alternating viewpoints, that of the mother to be, Claudia; her nanny, Zoe and a police woman investigating a series of murders of pregnant women. Although this sets up plenty of tension as the nanny appears to be behaving suspiciously and Claudia becomes more unnerved by her, while the police woman’s getting nowhere fast with her investigation, I didn’t warm to the characters and found the first half of the novel hard going. Largely I think to the alternating viewpoint structure. I got more engrossed in the subplot of the police woman’s fractured family life and almost wanted to skip the chapters from the main protagonists.
However, it was worth pursuing the plot to the end and as I read on I became much more involved and keen to work out the twist ending from the rather too much misdirection I found on the way. In the end I did guess the twist but the final chapters were compelling and very well written. ‘Until you’re mine’ is an interesting psychological thriller with a bit too much misdirection through the use of the shifting points of view. I don’t think the structure worked as well as other writers’ use of this style but I would still recommend the novel for its pace and interesting theme
C J Browne 