Saving Meghan is a riveting new thriller full of secrets and lies from author D.J. Palmer. Can you love someone to death? Some would say Becky Gerard is a devoted mother and would do anything for her only child. Others, including her husband Carl, claim she’s obsessed and can’t stop the vicious circle of finding a cure at her daughter’s expense. Fifteen-year-old Meghan has been in and out of … Fifteen-year-old Meghan has been in and out of hospitals with a plague of unexplained illnesses. But when the ailments take a sharp turn, clashing medical opinions begin to raise questions about the puzzling nature of Meghan’s illness. Doctors suspect Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare behavioral disorder where the primary caretaker seeks medical help for made-up symptoms of a child. Is this what’s going on? Or is there something even more sinister at hand?
As the Gerards grow more and more suspicious of each other and their medical team, Becky must race against time to prove her daughter has a deadly disease. But first, she must confront her darkest fears and family secrets that threaten to not only upend her once-ordered life…but to destroy it.
Praise for Saving Meghan:
“Plenty of twists…will keep you turning the pages as you guess…and guess again.” –Lisa Scottoline, New York Times bestselling author of After Anna
“An acute, sensitive portrayal of family love under extreme stress...[with] a touch of Hitchcock.” –William Landay, New York Times bestselling author of Defending Jacob
more
DJ Palmer captivates readers with the fine line between a mother on a mission and a mother who’s gone way too far… the stakes couldn’t be higher in this pulse-pounding winner of a thriller.
Plenty of twists… will keep you turning the pages as you guess… and guess again.
This is a medical mystery that will keep you guessing until the end. It’s also the story about a family in meltdown due to medical issues. I was sure several times during the book who was at fault – was it Meghan, her mom Becky or her dad Carl? Or was Meghan really sick with an unknown disease.
This novel is told in alternating chapters by Becky and Meghan. Becky has devoted the last several years trying to find out what’s wrong with her once healthy and athletic daughter who is often too sick to get out of bed and go to school. She has taken her to numerous doctors in a variety of specialties and the tests that are done keep coming up negative – all of Meghan’s test show nothing pointing to any medical problems. Meghan seems a bit overwhelmed by it too – she knows she is sick, she knows that her dad doesn’t believe her and she just wants to feel good again but doesn’t know how or why this is happening to her but the secrets that she is keeping also make her suspect. So the main question throughout the book is whether Meghan is really sick or is she making it all up? Doctors suspect Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare behavioral disorder where the primary caretaker, typically the mother, seeks medical help for made-up symptoms of a child. Will the mystery be solved before Megan gets sicker?
This was a great suspense novel with several characters who really seemed to be the reason for Meghan’s illnesses. Who is responsible and will Meghan be saved? I was a difficult book to put down once I started it.
Mother doesn’t always know best in this thrill ride of a novel… gripping and twisted.
I received a free print ARC of this novel from Goodreads Giveaways. Below is my honest review.
What an incredibly intriguing premise: a mother, fighting earnestly for her teenaged daughter’s health despite a lack of diagnosis for her debilitating illness, Becky is accused of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. In essence, she is accused of inflicting these severe symptoms on her own daughter due to a psychological disease she harbors. Frustrated with never-ending hospital visits that lead to no hope of a diagnosis, even her husband Carl begins to believe she is culpable for her daughter’s sickness.
The narrators alternate between Becky, her daughter Meghan, and Zach (a doctor). Zach’s own young boy died of mitochondrial disease, so when he suspects Meghan may also have the disease, his coworkers suspect he is too emotionally invested to be impartial.
This book is a page-turner. Is Becky a desperate mother who will do anything to save her daughter, or is she a product of her upbringing? Are Meghan’s symptoms real or psychosomatic? Does Zach hold the cure to Meghan’s disease, or has he been blinded by his own grief?
Although I was able to predict the main element of the conclusion, the ending was still surprising. I struggled to decide whether this book was really worthy of five stars after reading the ending (as thriller writers are wont to do, the ending is overly climactic to the point of absurdity). However, as I have already been recommending this book to friends and family, and since I was impressed by the level of detail in the medical and legal discussion, I have decided to bestow a solid five-star rating.
Smart, chilling, and full of hairpin turns, Saving Meghan is highwire suspense of the first order.
This book was spectacular!! It wasn’t anything like I was expecting based on the title, and I didn’t read the synopsis because I like to be surprised. Poor Meghan really went through so much in this book and it broke my heart to see her suffering not only physically but emotionally as well. It really goes to show that a Mother’s love has no boundaries. This book is loaded with so many twists & turns that I never knew what was going to happen next. Kept me on the edge of my seat right up to the end.
Legally Bound
This starts out fairly slowly; I wasn’t sure I was even going to be interested. But as the plot unfolded and the story enveloped me, I found myself sucked in, turning pages ever faster, while my brain tried to get ahead of the tale to figure out what was going on. The need for instant action to protect the innocent can create massive injustices to all parties. Lack of sufficiently trained personnel to investigate and verify claims makes the appalling actions permitted by law that much more flagrant. This nice, solid, medical thriller explores a number of areas not generally known–I love when a book teaches me new things!
Smart and taut… Moves at a lighting pace.
Wow! I loved this book. Great writing, great story. A young girl who has unexplained illness after illness, test after test that do not show anything wrong. A mother who is her advocate, fiercely protective and insistent that something really bad is wrong. A father who doesn’t believe her illnesses are real. Things spiral out of control and get even worse. I was blown away wh3n all was revealed.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Is Megan really sick?.. is Mom to blame?.. or is it something else…..??
I really liked this book! Such a well written Medical Thriller/ Mystery with full developed characters and a plot that kept me up way past my bedtime!!
4.5 stars
This was a very good medical thriller from beginning to dramatic ending. It had me turning pages way to late and way to early. It was very hard to put down.
What do you do when you know in your heart that your daughter is sick. Very sick. No one believes you. No one will listen. They all believe you are sick and that you are hurting your child. How can you prove them wrong??? Can you?
Becky grew up with a sick mother who made her life horrible. A child who had to lie. Had to say things that were not right. Can you get over that and move on with your life and have a family of your own. Becky had to overcome so much and take care of her ailing daughter. Her husband, who I did not like from the beginning, was of no use to them at all. He was either being a demeaning brut or acting like a spoiled child who wanted things his way no matter what. I just did not like him at all.
Meghan was a child who had to practically give up her whole life because of being so sick. She knew something was not right but didn’t know what. She was a child and depended completely on her mother. Her dad was not there for her very much at all. Her mom did everything for her. Could she be making her sick too? Could it all be in Meghan’s head? Or could Meghan just be pretending that she was so sick?
This book will keep you on the edge of your seat. It has so many twists and turns and that ending was great. I loved it. I never ever expected that. I was in total shock. But after reading it, it makes sense that it would happen that way.
I liked almost all the characters in this book with the exception of Carl and Dr Nash. I didn’t like her much at all. It is one that will have you guessing until the end and what an ending it was. Well the very ending was so sad that I cried, but before that I was blown away. It was a great book. It’s the first I have read by this author and I look forward to more.
A HUGE 5 stars from me.
Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for a copy of this book for my complete and honest review. I loved it!!
A very compelling, memorable, psychological, medical thriller. There were many twists and turns to keep you wondering, and guessing. Even then the twist at the end, I didn’t see coming in the slightest. It was an interesting and very intense read!
An acute, sensitive portrayal of family love under extreme stress… [with] a touch of Hitchcock.
This story pulls you in from beginning to end , keeps you invested in The characters and hoping for the best outcome for both the mom and daughter , All I could think of at the end was ,, Expect the unexpected ,BRAVO TO THE AUTHOR!
A different kind of thriller, “Saving Meghan” kept me guessing until the very end.
I had a hard time committing to this book in the beginning. I just couldn’t connect with the characters. Great storyline, surprising ending. Once I was engaged, I didn’t want to stop reading & finished in 2 days. Definitely worth reading, especially if you’re interested in medical/mysteries.
First off, I have to thank St. Martin’s Press for sending me this Advanced Reader’s Copy!
This book is pretty fast-paced. Meghan is the daughter of Carl and Becky Gerard. Meghan has had unexplained illnesses for almost her entire life, without getting any diagnoses for these illnesses. Becky is a devoted mother and staunch advocate for Meghan. After one dramatic incident, doctors intervene (these are doctors that are not treating Meghan) and suspect Munchhausen syndrome by proxy, which Becky adamantly denies.
I did not see the ending coming with this book. It was a twist that I hadn’t anticipated. Great book, even though there were a few typographical errors throughout the book.
I couldn’t even read it all it was not my kind of book
Had me going until the end! Very fast moving story. I didn’t want to put it down–always a sign of a good story.