Domestic Suspense Thriller published by William Morrow Paperbacks 28 Dec 21
I have anxiously awaited this book ever since I read Ms. Kane’s Pretty Little Wife in December of last year. She has a great knack for keeping a reader on the edge of their seat with every chapter. Here we meet Elisa Wright and her husband Harrison. They’re happily married with an active five-year-old son. It’s Elisa’s brother-in-law who now has her doubting him after years of looking at the man as a brother, and she’s beginning to doubt herself as she tries to solve her best friend’s disappearance.
Josh was engaged to that missing BFF. But she’s been missing since about a week before the planned wedding, and the fact that Josh now has a new girlfriend so quickly is not sitting well with Elisa. Then she discovers some of Abby’s things hidden where they shouldn’t be. More and more the clues she finds just don’t add up and Elisa’s suspicions grow by the day. The last straw is when information about a previous wife she knew nothing about is revealed, along with the fact that wife, wife No. 1, also died just like wife No. 2. Elisa doesn’t believe in coincidence, especially when no one bothered to share this info with her when she married into the family. As far as she’s now concerned, Josh is a murderer, no doubt about it. Of course, proving it is another matter entirely.
But Elisa does her best, despite all the strange things that begin to happen to her. We learn she has a horrible incident in her past that leaves her paralyzed and paranoid. Even her husband begins to suspect all is not right with her instead of his brother. Harrison raised Josh after their parents were killed. He did his best, but Josh is selfish, self-centered, lazy, and a host of other negatives. Then there’s Rachel, the new girlfriend. Elisa can’t decide if she’s friend or foe. She’s as nice as can be, but when Elisa overhears conversations between Josh and Rachel, that niceness flies out the window. Oh, and how about another girlfriend showing up out of the blue? One Josh was seeing at the same time he was engaged to Abby. The hits just keep on coming, and Elisa is finally pushed to get some outside help from someone who will hopefully get some answers Elisa can’t find.
Another terrific page-turner from Ms. Kane. Just when you think – even know – you’ve figured it all out, she tosses your hypothesis out the window with Rachel’s niceness. Even amid all the turmoil Elisa is going through, along with her doubts, especially about Harrison, I enjoyed their relationship. And all the interactions with their son, fun as well as tense, are wonderfully done. And Josh is just plain ole sleezy.
If you’ve not started reading Darby Kane, pick up PLW and this one as soon as you can. Well worth it!
Grade: A
Summary:
Elisa Wright is a mom and wife, living a nice, quiet life in a nice, quiet town. She’s also convinced her brother-in-law is a murderer. Josh has one dead wife and one missing fiancée, and though he grieved for them he starts dating someone new. Elisa fears for that woman’s safety, and she desperately wants to know what happened to her friend, Josh’s missing fiancée.
Searching for clues means investigating her own family. And she doesn’t like what she finds. A laptop filled with incriminating information. Other women.
But when Elisa becomes friends with Josh’s new girlfriend and starts to question things she thinks are true, Elisa wonders if the memories of a horrible incident a year ago have finally pushed her over the edge and Josh is really innocent. With so much at stake, Elisa fights off panic attacks and a strange illness. Is it a breakdown or something more? The race is on to get to the truth before another disappearance because there’s a killer in the family…or is there?
Read an excerpt.
