My thoughts on The Secret Wife

I read a lot of books that fall somewhere under the psychological thriller / domestic thriller heading. Some a good, some are bad, and some are in-between. It’s the in-between ones that I struggle to review the most because I’m aware of how much effort the author will have put in to a book that – for me – falls short. That’s the case with The Secret Wife, which checked all my ‘must have’ boxes on paper but just didn’t work for me in ‘real life’.

It wasn’t that there was one wrong thing about The Secret Wife that I could pinpoint as the reason that the book didn’t work for me. It was more a combination of little things. I struggled to connect to the characters. Michael, the husband, is presented as controlling and Cara as willing to go along with him because she loves him. Yet neither rang quite true. Michael wasn’t quite sinister enough, Cara not quite as gullible as I felt she needed to be. The supporting cast of characters weren’t as fully formed as I would have liked to see either. Everything felt a little too one-dimensional and ‘write by numbers’.

I also struggled with the plot. At it’s core, I think it’s a good one. But with this type of book, you expect twists and turns and red herrings. You need to be left guessing about just who the ‘bad guy’ is and whether the husband really is that evil. Here, it was all pretty linear. It was obvious from the first chapter that Michael was controlling and expected to get his way and that he was hiding things. Which meant I was left watching the story unfurl rather than trying to solve anything.

When all is said and done, I was left feeling just a little flat. I don’t think would be the case for everyone, but it was for me. Not one I’ll be buying as a gift. 3 Stars.

Emma x

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