Synopsis:
Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into – Spyglass, an enchanting old house in the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls – nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn’t fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that this stranger is his wife.
One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying.
Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner named Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person’s date of death, including her own. Secrets start to unravel and, as the line between truth and lies blurs, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs.
My Husband’s Wife weaves a tangled web of deception, obsession and mystery that will keep you guessing until the last page. Prepare yourself for the ultimate mind-bending marriage thriller and step inside Spyglass – if you dare – to experience a story where nothing is as it seems.
Review:
Imagine going for a run, only to return home and find your keys don’t fit your home lock. The woman who answers the door looks like you and claims she is you. Then, your trusted husband of many years doesn’t seem to recognise you and corroborates the look-alike’s story.
This was my first Alice Feeney and I can see why she’s the queen of twists. This kept me on my toes the whole way through with two timelines set six months apart and two different perspectives. This quickly expands, and by the end, one of my complaints was that it became too convoluted.
Set in Cornwall, we have a small, safe town where nothing (but the occasional suicide off the cliff) happens. We have a jaded, dying woman, a desperate, tragic wife, a naive, popular officer.
All varieties of love are an equation. Time plus life multiplied by hard times plus heartbreak equals love minus lust? Maybe relationships are just a matter of maths? My husband doesn’t love me the way he used to, but he does still love me, I know he does, and perhaps that is all anyone can hope for when they have been together as long as we have.
Whilst I appreciated the twists, I do think that they were unrealistic. It relied on withholding key information until the right time. Information that our point-of-view characters know all the way through but don’t divulge. This is very frustrating as it means there are so many red flags, but convenient reveals. Not only did this slightly detract from the plot, but also meant reader connections with characters dwindled.
However, I know thrillers tend to be about the plot rather than the characters, so there was enough to keep me invested as a character-driven reader.
It’s fast-paced and you won’t be able to look away.
Leave a Reply