Mine

GP author Fox hands the stethoscope to her protagonist in this harrowing story of a possible baby mix-up at a hospital. Sasha Maloney, 37, trained as a paediatrician but turned pathologist after she sent a baby in her care home with an infection. Pregnant, she is driving with husband Mark when a kangaroo runs in front of the car. Sasha goes into premature labour and gives birth by emergency Caesarean at 35 weeks. The hospital was the one she wanted to avoid. It had a reputation. “I write autopsies about babies who don’t make it.” When she sees her baby in a humidicrib, the infant cannot be hers. She was expecting a girl. He does not resemble them. She has no feelings for him. But no one, not even her husband, believes someone has stolen her daughter. “I am not the observer, I am the observed,” she realises as she is transferred to the mother and baby unit of the psychiatric department. On the way she sees “MINE” scratched into the wall. It is a message, but Sasha is

“Alice in a nightmarish wonderland”. An original, brave new voice.