#BlogTour-‘Stop At Nothing’ by Tammy Cohen

About the book…

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the blog tour invite and Transworld for my gifted paperback copy of the book for the tour. It is available in ebook format from 18th July and paperback from 23rd January 2020.

A mother’s job is to keep her children safe.

Tess has always tried to be a good mother. Of course, there are things she wishes she’d done differently, but doesn’t everyone feel that way?

Then Emma, her youngest, is attacked on her way home from a party, plunging them into a living nightmare which only gets worse when the man responsible is set free

But what if she fails?

So when Tess sees the attacker in the street near their home, she is forced to take matters into her own hands. But blinded by her need to protect her daughter at any cost, might she end up putting her family in even greater danger?

There’s nothing she wouldn’t do to make it right . . .

‘Stop At Nothing’ is an astonishing character study of a mother who is facing a perfect storm of physical, societal and life experiences that are not just shattering her sense of self, they are leading her to question everything around her.

”My life had imploded,but nothing changed for him. Only the face on the pillow next to him.’

An attack on her daughter ,which leads to no one being prosecuted leaves Tess in a state of flux-she is distanced from any of her ‘school yard mum’ friends, is a carer for her infirm parents, a single parent following a catastrophic divorce and only one of her children chooses to live with her following an awful event. Suffering from lack of self esteem, further enhanced by the symptoms of the menopause, how far will Tess go to make sure that teenager, Emma, feels safe again?

Neatly flipping between Tess’ first person narrative, Emma’s, and an unknown third person with a to-be-revealed aganda, ‘Stop At Nothing’ keeps you constantly on your toes as the plot drops new information in left ,right and centre, leaving you reeling along with Tess, asking yourself the qustion ‘What would I do in her shoes?’

The other parents, viewed via a school Whatsapp group (surely the most evil app use incarnate, dreadful,dreadful things!) see Tess as ‘courting drama‘, her GP is less than sympathetic about her menopausal issues, suggesting that

”Try not to view it as a collection of unpleasant physical symptoms and accept it instead as a natural fact of life that will pass.Surely knowing that every woman goes through the same thing must be some sort of comfort?Strength in numbers,after all!”

The sheer fecking nerve of him!
This is a 52 year old woman caring for a mother with dementia, a father with diabetes, a teen daughter and chronic lack of sleep. She is struggling, she is suffering and yet is written off by society as a bad mother (for the sheer nerve of taking a half of a sleeping tablet and being difficult to arouse the night of the attack), a failed wife and even the justice system is not prepared to help. So Tess takes things into her own hands with catastrophic results.

I had absolutely no idea where this plot was going,but was 100% there for wherever Tammy Cohen was taking me! I couldn’t guess the ending in any way,shape or form, it was such a gripping read.

as the mother of 5 daughters, 2 of whom are adults, I can keenly remember every time the older two went anywhere, staying up all night and bristling with anger every time my husband described me as ‘tee-total’ exactly because of situations where the innocent becomes the victim. Drinking means loss of control, someone had to be constantly awake and responsible for those situations where you needed help (2 of the 5 had febrile convulsions, youngest is epileptic)-you feel constantly on guard for danger, even when you cannot possibly be there to prevent it. It’s the mother’s lot-guilt, guilt and more guilt.

But as Tess’ ex-husband and daughter say, ‘It’s not all about you,’but with society and the people in your life looking to judge your actions, I related to Tess only too well. Her rage and frustration at being helpless is understandable, however, Tess has to acknowledge the mistakes she has made in her life and see things from other people’s perspectives-such as the way she has behaved towards her ex’s new partner and try to rebuild bridges.

It’s a hard hitting, extremely well written novel that keeps you up all night and I found it hard to ‘cheat’ on this one (usually I am juggling 2 or 3 books at a time).

I remain very grateful to Anne Cater, Alison Barrow and of course, Tammy Cohen for letting me read ‘Stop At Nothing’.

Would you stop and would you know when to? Read it and decide for yourself!

About the author…

Tammy Cohen (who previously wrote under her formal name Tamar Cohen) has a growing backlist of acclaimed novels of domestic noir including:‘The Mistress’s Revenge’, ‘The War Of The Wives’, and ‘Someone Else’s Wedding’.

Her break-out psychological suspense thriller was ‘The Broken’, followed by ‘Dying For Christmas’, ‘‘First One Missing’ and ‘When Was She Bad’.

She lives in North London with her partner and three (nearly) grown children, plus one badly behaved dog.

Chat with her on Twitter @MsTamarCohen

Links-http://tammycohen.co.uk/