DEBUT Wrobel's debut concerns the relationship between Patty Watts and her daughter Rose Gold, but it's not a tender mother-daughter story. For her first 18 years, Rose Gold was raised as an invalid, often confined to a wheelchair or to the hospital, with sympathetic neighbors helpfully clucking about. In fact, Patty has been essentially poisoning her daughter in classic Munchausen syndrome by proxy fashion. Finally, owing partly to Rose Gold's testimony, Patty ends up in jail, but when she's released several years later, it's Rose Gold who picks her up and takes her in. Is she still in her mother's thrall? Has she risen above the past and forgiven her? As the stories of these two desperate and damaged women unfold, we learn that the truth runs deeper and darker, with Rose Gold's ability to scheme calling readers up short until they remember her provenance.VERDICT It's chilling enough to read about Rose Gold's suffering, but it's just as chilling--and at times uncomfortably satisfying--to discover what Rose Gold really has in mind. Definitely for the thriller crowd, but readers interested in fraught family relationships will want to investigate as well.--Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

The release of 58-year-old Patty Watts from an Illinois prison kick-starts Wrobel's diabolically plotted debut. It wasn't until Patty's daughter, Rose Gold, turned 16 and gained internet access that she realized her mother had been poisoning her since infancy; Rose Gold's undiagnosable illness was actually ipecac-induced vomiting resulting in crippling malnutrition. Rose Gold's testimony not only helped convict Patty, but pitted all of the dying town of Deadwick against her, so it's a shock when Patty finishes her sentence and moves in with Rose Gold--now a 23-year-old single mother to two-month-old Adam. Patty is determined to win back the neighbors and regain control of her daughter's life; unbeknownst to Patty, however, Rose Gold has plans of her own. Rose Gold's past-tense narration, which chronicles her rocky path to independence, alternates with present-tense chapters from Patty's point of view documenting her postincarceration transformation from predator to prey. Propulsive pacing, a claustrophobic setting, and vividly sketched characters who are equal parts victim and villain conspire to create an anxious, unsettling narrative. Psychological suspense fans will be well satisfied. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary (U.K.). (Mar.)

In a story ripped from the headlines, Patty Watts is convicted of aggravated child abuse after years of poisoning her only child, Rose Gold, in a case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. As Patty serves her sentence, Rose Gold tries to find her way in a world that she has been kept from by her controlling and manipulative mother. When Patty gets out of prison, their small town is shocked that Rose Gold, now an adult and a new mother, agrees to take her in. Hasn't she learned that her mother cannot be trusted? As their complicated relationship begins to unravel, it becomes clear that neither mother nor daughter has each other's best intentions at heart. Wrobel's debut explores a fresh premise in a story that does not shy away from dark and disturbing scenes. Patty and Rose Gold are complicated, well-developed characters whose motivations are subtle and difficult to foresee. This dynamic results in a story that leaves readers guessing to the end and should be a draw for fans of psychological thrillers.

The daughter testified, the mother went to prison, and their small town hoped that would be the end of it. But old habitsand old grudgesdie hard in Wrobel's debut novel.Rose Gold Watts was never sick, but her mother, Patty, with her bottle of ipecac syrup, was. After discovering that her mother had spent the better part of two decades poisoning and starving her, the then-teenage Rose Gold testified in the trial that sent Patty to prison for aggravated child abuse. Five years later, with the support of her hometown, Rose Gold has purchased the house where her mother grew up and begun renovating it to create a safe place to raise her infant son, Adam. She leaves everyone in her tightknit community reeling when she reconciles with the newly released Patty and offers her a place to stay. With this framework in place, the novel alternates between the two women as first-person narrators in the past and present. The obviously manipulative Patty guides readers through her attempts to get back on former friends' and neighbors' good sides, all the while waffling over whether and when she should exact her revenge via her daughter's greatest weakness: Adam. Meanwhile, Rose Gold pitches the narration into the past, covering the five years her mother spent in prison, which the former victim of neglect spent trying to forcibly connect with family members she had long believed were dead. Wrobel builds tension by tearing down and knocking away everything the audience believes they know, leaving a mountain of questions regarding Rose Gold's present-day life and her relationship with Patty. This thriller speeds toward its conclusion in true page-turner fashion, without feeling rushed.A taut tale that will keep you guessing until the very end. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.