My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing (debut)
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: March 26, 2019
Length: 384 pages
Amazon

{A Bit of Backstory}

Single Sentence Summary

A perfectly normal couple have a sick little hobby: kidnapping and then killing women.

From the Publisher

“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 our secrets to keeping a marriage alive.

Ours just happens to be getting away with murder.”

The Draw

– A debut thriller.
– Couple getting away with murder.
– A blurb that gives little away!

{My Thoughts}

What Worked For Me

An Outrageous Premise – Millicent and her husband have been married for 15 years and are still in love. Kids came quickly and now they have a son, 14, and a daughter, 13, who both come with the usual pains of early adolescence. They also have good jobs, a mortgage, friends, and a penchant for killing women. The excitement of plotting, planning and getting away with murder adds a little spice to their love life. In the beginning of the book I honestly felt like I was a little sick to be reading it. This is the age of empowerment for women and yet the book is fraught with victims. I actually turned to Goodreads to see what others had thought. I didn’t read reviews deeply, but saw enough to convince me to stay with My Lovely Wife. Good call, Susie! Its premise is totally out there, but it’s a thriller and thrillers always need a good hook.

“We talked about how we could kill them and how we could get away with it, and those nights always ended with amazing sex. Wild sex. In every place we could, provided the kids weren’t around. If they were in the house, we struggled to be quiet.

It was almost as if we were climbing a ladder. We joked about it, talked about it, picked out women, and planned it. Every time we escalated to one rung, we stepped up to another. Then someone suggested we do it for real. It was me.”

Fabulous Narration – My Lovely Wife is told exclusively by the unnamed husband of our killing couple. He’s a nice man. You can’t help but like him. You’re almost going to want to root for him, and you’re going to be disgusted with yourself for that! As the book moves forward he delivers the story of his marriage in it entirety, from meeting on a plane, to starting a family, to building careers, to their first killing, right through to where they are at present. Half of a wacko couple, he appears to be the saner of the two. I loved the dichotomy between the most basic, banal, everyday rigors of a suburban life with teens, and plotting murders. How can you trust a man like this? His delivery was SO matter-of-fact that it was chilling…in a good way!

The Book’s Second Half – This was one of those stories that started a little slow, plodding a long, but then slowly began to pick up the pace. By the second half I was flying through the pages and couldn’t put it down. I can’t really say much more because I don’t want to give anything away. Just take my word for it and stay with this one. The very end? Masterful!

What Didn’t

The Book’s First Half – For me My Lovely Wife was a little slow to take flight. I’m glad I turned to Goodreads and saw from others to stick with it. I’m not sure what the author might have done differently or even if she should have done anything differently. You just need to know that this is a story that’s building a foundation for the ending to stand on and in that Samantha Downing did a terrific job.

{The Final Assessment}

My Lovely Wife was a different kind of thriller from what I usually read. Regardless of the slow first half, I enjoyed being inside the lives and heads of the killers. I had to remind myself over and over that this narrator couldn’t be trusted. He was part of a killing team, and yet? I liked him. Samantha Downing had me bouncing back and forth over my feelings towards her premise and her narrator, and that’s exactly what made her debut so successful. I look forward to reading more from Downing. Grade: A-

If you liked this book you might also enjoy:

• Best Day Ever by Kiara Rouda – A couple head out of town for a weekend at their lake home, he hopes to make it their “best day ever,” but something is not quite right. (my review)
• Sunburn by Laura Lippman – A slow-burning story of secrets and lies between a man and a woman playing a game of cat and mouse with each other. (my review)

Note: Thank you to Berkley Publishing for an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Associate links included within this post.