The Abortionist's Daughter

The Abortionist’s Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde

Read by Beth McDonald

Published by: HarperCollins

Price: £17.99 Audio CD (Unabridged)

Megan Thompson’s parting words to her mother during a silly row were, “Have fun killing babies!” Not very nice, you might think. But Dr Diana Duprey is an abortionist doctor, the sort that has protesters and campaigners outside her practice almost everyday. So when she’s murdered, the finger points at them.

This is a novel perforated with dark little moral questions. After what Dr Diana Duprey leaves in a bucket every afternoon, did she deserve to die? Is posing for pictures with your boyfriend, like her daughter Megan did, wrong? What about drugs? Is there ever a right time, right place?

It makes for a simple and predictable plot, and characters a little one dimensional, but the story builds itself, layer by moral layer, making for compulsive listening.

Diana is found floating, face down in her pool with a bruise the size of a golf ball on the back of her head. This is more than a simple ‘whodunnit’ though. Elisabeth Hyde writes for audio as she describes the scene, and its surrounding events in minute detail. The broken glass from the fight she had with her husband Frank only a few hours before about her parenting skills. He blamed her for the pornographic pictures of their daughter on the internet.

Diana had also fought with the Reverend Stephen O’Connell, the founder of the town’s pro-life coalition. His obvious issues with Diana are aggravated by his own troubled teenage son.

Megan is a university student having a taste of all life throws at her. Her life is overshadowed by her stalking ex boyfriend, Bill, who grows into a threatening presence as the story unfolds. I detested his character from the off, mainly due to Beth McDonald’s reading. She captures his sinister arrogance, the highlight of which is when Megan becomes involved with the Detective on her mother’s case, Huck Berlin, driving Bill insane with jealousy.