Some debts can only be paid in blood.
 
A rich socialite is found hacked to death in her Dublin home. It’s the beginning of a killing spree that leaves five apparently unconnected people brutally slain. Kate Hamilton, a brilliant and ambitious detective sergeant, is assigned to the case and soon uncovers the connection between the victims – they were all involved in an illegal adoption scheme which was running in Ireland up to the 1980s.

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In a deeply traditional society, unmarried mothers were shamed by their families, forced to give birth in secret and surrender their newborns for adoption, fuelling a lucrative and cruel baby trade.

Now, decades later, it seems someone is taking bloody revenge on those who played a part in the adoption racket.

With each day bringing a new victim, Kate and her team race to stop the bloodshed. But when she discovers she has a personal link with both victims and murderer, Kate realises her own life is in danger as never before.

Blood Mothers – the first in the gripping new series featuring DS Kate Hamilton.

My Review

I loved this book so much. The subject matter is devastatingly sad and makes for a compelling read.

Did you ever see the film Philomena with Judi Dench and Steve Coogan? It takes place in Ireland, a very traditional country, where an illegitimate birth was the greatest shame that could be suffered by a young girl. Former journalist (Coogan) is asked by Philomena’s daughter to write the story of her mother (played by Dench), whose son was taken away at birth over 50 years earlier, and ‘given’ to a good Catholic family in America. At this time, unmarried mothers were sent off to convents to have their babies in secret and avoid bringing shame on the family.

This is the premise of Blood Mothers, but in this case there is a bloody and sinister twist. It starts with two women, brutally murdered in their own homes, with no apparent connection to each other. It’s only when Billy Butler, the elderly caretaker of the now disused St Mary’s Convent that was involved in the adoptions and secret baby trade, is also murdered, that a pattern begins to emerge.

DS Kate Hamilton has recently returned from working with the FBI in America, to join the Murder Squad of An Garda Síochána. She is called in to investigate the murders, along with her boss DI Jim Corcoran. But little does Kate know that her life is linked to both the victims and the killer, or that she is increasingly in danger.

In 1967, 14-year-old Rosie Jackson finds herself pregnant, having been raped by her cousin. She is sent away to St Mary’s to have her baby and is befriended by another girl called Bernie O’Toole. Rosie’s story is heartbreaking, as is that of Bernie and of the other girls sent away to St Mary’s.

We jump between the two timelines, Rosie in 1967 and Kate in 2010. I don’t always like this tactic, as the ‘now’ is often more interesting than the ‘then’ which can prevent the story from moving forward. But this is different. I loved Rosie’s story – maybe loved is the wrong word – often even more so than the murders. It’s hard to imagine that people were so cruel and judgemental in my lifetime, but they were and many young girls had to live with the consequences.

Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the Author

Gaye admits to a lifelong obsession with crime, and a keen interest in psychology and social history. She credits her parents, who were avid readers, with her love of fiction. When she graduated from Enid Blyton to Agatha Christie at age nine, so began a life of crime… reading.  She enjoyed an award-winning career as a TV Producer/Director working for the BBC, ITV and RTE. She’s always written in her spare time, and during lockdown, when her husband built himself a workshop at the end of the garden, she seized control (peacefully) and renamed it her writing cabin.  The result was Blood Mothers.

Now a full-time writer, she has three adult children and one adorable granddaughter. She lives in Dublin with her husband, to whom she now owes a workshop, two of her grown up kids and two rescue dogs who are not at all grown up, but make for great company at the bottom of the garden. 

Blood Mothers is Gaye Maguire’s first book with Inkubator Books.

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