The Playdate

You leave your kids with a friend. Everyone does it. Until the day it goes wrong.

Single mother Callie has come to rely heavily on her best friend Suzy. But Callie suspects Suzy's life isn't as simple as it seems. It's time she pulled away – going back to work is just the first step towards rediscovering her old confidence. So why does she keep putting off telling Suzy about her new job? And who will care for her rather frail daughter, Rae, while she is gone?

Suzy and Callie live close to each other on a typical cramped, anonymous London street. Neighbours seem to move in, and move on, before you have even learned their names. Callie's increased sense of alienation leads her to try to befriend a new resident on her street, Debs. But Debs is anxious, odd. You wouldn't trust her with your child – especially not if you knew anything about her past.

A brilliant and chilling evocation of modern life, in which friendships might be longstanding but remain superficial, and in which exhausted working parents make impulsive, instinctive decisions about the care of their children every day, The Playdate is a real talking-point book for mothers everywhere.