Book Review: My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry*
Monday 30 May 2016
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I feel like I’m starting to
sound a little bit like a stuck record when it comes to psychological
thrillers, but they really are my favourite genre of them all. I was lucky
enough to be sent an advance copy of My
Husband’s Wife by Jane Corry about
a month back and I was quick to get stuck into it. I think it’s fair to say
that this book is one which has been much anticipated by readers and publishers
alike and the fact that it’s been signed up by Penguin books speaks volumes. I absolutely loved both the title of
the book and the cover itself and it was definitely the combination of the two
which attracted me to the book in the first place. Thanks to Penguin for sending me a copy of this
book in exchange for an honest review!
The novel introduces the
perspectives of two characters, Lily, a newly qualified criminal lawyer and
Carla, the young daughter of Lily’s neighbour. Lily’s story is based around the
relationship between her and her artist husband Ed and the case on which she is
focusing all of her attention, involving a man who is accused of having
murdered his girlfriend in a scolding bath. On the other hand, Carla’s tale
revolves around her mother’s affair with a married man and the consequences
that come with it. The story recommences around half way into the book with a
flash forward in time, to a point where Carla herself is in the midst of
training to be a lawyer. The manipulative characteristics she exerted as a
child show themselves once again in a sudden change of direction which left me
quite shocked! We’re aware from the very beginning that Ed has been murdered,
which was an interesting touch as the novel covers more than 15 years before
even touching on the events surrounding his death, so it really does leave you
wondering and speculating on what could have happened. I’ll leave my little
summary there as it’s really hard to say anything without spoiling the whole
story, but expect murder, unexpected debauchery and a whole lot of creepiness.
I’m not going to lie to you-
this is a very long book. I was a bit surprised to find it was so long, because
I’ve found in the fact that psychological thrillers tend to be fast-paced and
average-length. I was a bit put off by the sheer volume of the text but gave it
a go anyway and I’m honestly so glad that I did because it really is an
amazingly interesting, thrilling and mysterious story. I must admit, I really
quite liked this tale. I thought the story moved along relatively quickly when
taking into consideration its sheer depth and a lot of what was going on left
me doubting the every move of each character involved. I did notice that there
was a bit of confusion with names at one point, where a character was referred
to as a different name to what they ought to have been. I won’t elaborate much
further as it did kind of give away a key plot hole, but I presume this was a
typing mistake. I’d like to hope that it’s been rectified during the final
editing process! I loved the flashbacks and the eventual flash forward and the
entire plot was thought provoking and shiver-inducing.
If you’re a fan of The Girl on the Train or I Let You Go then you’ll most probably
like this one as well. It’s dark and intriguing with twists and turns aplenty.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what Jane will offer up in the future and
I wish her all the best with the paperback publication of this debut novel on
August 25th. You can currently buy an e-copy of the book on amazon here.
4.5/5
