Koren Zailckas, MOTHER, MOTHER

Although this is not a story about a detective or amateur sleuth pursuing the solution to a crime, this story meets the broader criterion of a mystery in that it does center on a crime.  The story is told from the viewpoints of two children in a family dominated by a mother who is a psychotic narcissist. The mother’s ability to manipulate the family members and disguise the truth makes her a genuinely frightening character.

Even though I suspect many readers will be able to guess quite early on the solution to the crime that drives the story, the characterizations are so sharp and the writing so fluid that you will read to the end without disappointment.