G1108 Book Review of My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing
Author: Samantha Downing
ISBN: 978-0-451-49172-5
Publisher: Berkley
Type of book: Modern times, Florida, husband-and-wife relationships, murder, thriller, domesticity, family, marriage, victims, seeking out victims, cat-and-mouse game
Year it was published: 2019
Summary:
Dexter meets Mr. and Mrs. Smith in this wildly compulsive debut thriller about a couple whose fifteen-year marriage has finally gotten too interesting...
Our love story is simple. I met a gorgeous woman. We fell in love. We had kids. We moved to the suburbs. We told each other our biggest dreams, and our darkest secrets. And then we got bored.
We look like a normal couple. We're your neighbors, the parents of your kid's friend, the acquaintances you keep meaning to get dinner with.
We all have secrets to keeping a marriage alive.
Ours just happens to be getting away with murder.
Characters:
Main characters include the unnamed husband as well as his beautiful wife Millicent. The unnamed husband is a tennis player instructor who lets Millicent control every aspect of his and his children's lives. He is resourceful, and often prefers to live in a world where ignorance is bliss rather than having knowledge of something his wife had done. He also seems to rebel a bit in his own way but loves Millicent. I keep thinking that he is also easy to manipulate for Millicent. Millicent is the beautiful red-haired woman who had a traumatic childhood of having her older sister torture her endlessly, and she is also strict and isn't afraid of going after what she wants. She is also extremely manipulative and is the planner, while the husband is the doer.
Theme:
You never know the secrets people hide from you
Plot:
The story is in first person narrative from the unnamed husband's point of view. (To be honest, I had no idea he was without a name and was surprised to learn that we were never given his name.) Besides it being a thriller, it was also a domestic tale exploring relationships, how we put up facades in front of family members and how much we hide and reveal to others. Mostly, the thrillers I read focused on just that, the thriller aspects. In fact, I can barely recall any that focus on these domestic details. In the novel there is also the cat-and-mouse game of whether or not the husband and wife can hide their activities from others, and of how violence and media's obsession with it impacts families. So yes, this is not a typical thriller of shady dealings and murders, but instead its a tale of modern day society under microscope.
Author Information:
(From the book)
Samantha Downing currently lives in New Orleands, where she is furiously typing away on her next thrilling book. MY LOVELY WIFE is her first novel.
Opinion:
The first thing that attracted me to MY LOVELY WIFE by Samantha Downing was the premise: a husband and a wife that murder people to keep their marriage spark alive. Upon getting permission to read it, I devoured this tale in one day-yes, one day- and cannot think of any similar tales that I have read that had me sitting for hours, eagerly devouring each page, being shocked and confounded by the secrets that have popped up. And no, I didn't see the ending coming. Its definitely a compulsive read where several days off from a job are required because once you start then you won't stop because one more page turns to one more chapter turns to 'I will stop reading this book as soon as I find out what happened' to "I am in too deep, I must finish this,' and finally ends with 'ah man, did I finish this? Book hangover alert!'
This was given to me for a review
5 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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