Wonderboy »

Ghastly new home.
Potentially adulterous husband . . .
Not quite the fresh start in the country she was promised.

A fixer-upper in the sticks was the last place city girl Ro Skews expected to live. But her husband, Marcus, wants it -- and all the arguments are on his side, namely a better life for Tod, their wonderboy, who has developed social problems in London. Of course, the five-year-old has never been the most . . . conventional child.

While Ro (grudgingly) makes a life for herself in stuffy Chetsley (if you can count reaping the whirlwind of floor sanding and playing Suburban Lawn Warfare with her sexy neighbor as a life), Marcus starts spending more nights in the city with his cell phone switched off. And Tod, whose fascination with mazes seems to have blossomed into a full-blown obsession, treads the worrying line between eccentric and problematic.

Ro searches for the right path in a few mazes of her own -- her marriage, motherhood, country customs -- but when she unearths a shattering secret, more than one truth is revealed and Ro is left wondering: Is the country any place to raise a family?

Fiona Gibson is a freelance journalist who has written for many British publications, including The Observer, The Guardian, Red and Marie Claire. She is the mother of three young children.