The Midwife's Confession

March 21, 2011
Chamberlain (The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes) unravels a heartbreaking mystery about a midwife whose suicide opens the door to her dark past. Noelle Downie was an unconventional beauty whose calling as a midwife defined her among her friends, Tara and Emerson. Because Noelle's career was one of embracing life, her suicide left her friends largely puzzled. More shocking, though, is an unfinished letter discovered among Noelle's belongings that reveals a secret so horrifying that Tara and Emerson embark on a mission to find the woman the letter is addressed to. As they struggle to reconcile new revelations with the Noelle they thought they knew, Chamberlain's hold on the multiperspective narrative weakens, and the hopping back and forth between characters creates a narrative jumble. Chamberlain does pull it together in time for the wrapup, finally giving readers willing to stick through some choppiness a bittersweet story about regret and hope.

April 15, 2011
A complex, heart-wrenching tale, Chamberlains latest novel (after The Lies We Told, 2010) offers a Jodi Picoultlike story line yanked from the most shocking of headlines. Tara, Emerson, and Noelle have been close friends since college. Now adults with daughters of their own, Tara and Emerson are stunned when midwife Noelle inexplicably takes her own life. As they seek the truth behind her suicide, they encounter layer upon layer of old secrets and hurts. Chamberlain weaves backstory and front story with skill and tender ferocity as the characters alternate between a joyful harmony among themselves and with one another, painfully awkward moves that threaten to destroy relationships, and an ultimately wise understanding that forever changes their lives. Many voices populate the novel, from the womens to the teen daughters, leading to unexpected, plot-twisting surprises later on. Although the story at times stretches the limits of credulity with its near soap-operatic drama, the frankness of each scene and character should grab readers and keep them eagerly turning pages right up to the startling climax.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)