The End of Her

This psychological domestic suspense read gives readers an array of characters whose suspicious motives will keep readers guessing about long-held secrets. This was a quick read for me and was quite the page-turner. There are a few tropes used: he said/she said, blackmail, cheating spouses, gaslighting (I'm kind of over this trope), and a wicked baddie you'll love to hate. But it has a different feel from Lapena's earlier books and is just shy of the tension that I've come to expect from this author.

The story is told by multiple POVs - new parents Patrick and Stephanie, Patrick's business partner and his wife, and another couple who play a minor role. What do they all have in common? A manipulative femme fatale with an axe to grind and a sinister hobby of extortion. Lapena provides some backstory on these characters so readers learn their motives and connection to each other, with most falling somewhere in that gray area of morality.

The story is well-paced with a slow build in its suspense. It kept me engaged until later on when things fell into place a little too predictably and readers are left hanging on a couple of secondary plots. I liked the build-up, but I was expecting a big shocker of an ending and while the epilogue had a good twist (if a bit ambiguous), it didn't pack quite the punch I had expected.

Overall, this was a quick read for me that I'd describe as a domestic thriller with a darker psychological edge and a few red herrings but with less of an edge-of-your-seat feel. This may not have been my favourite Lapena read, but she continues to be one of my auto-read authors and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to the publisher for providing me 
with a complimentary print copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Author: Shari Lapena

Genre: Suspense, Canadian

Type and Source: Trade Paperback/Publisher

Publisher: Doubleday Canada

First Published: July 28, 2020

Opening Lines: The snow has fallen heavily, relentlessly, for two days 
now, and shows no sign of letting up. It's madness to go.

Book Description from GoodReads: In upstate New York, Stephanie and Patrick are adjusting to life with their colicky twin babies. The girls are a handful, but Stephanie doesn't mind being a stay-at-home mom, taking care of them while Patrick does the 9-5 to pay the bills.

And when a woman from Patrick's past drops in on them unexpectedly, raising questions about his late first wife, Stephanie supports her husband wholeheartedly. She knows the car accident all those many years ago was just that--an accident. But Erica is persistent, and now she's threatening to go to the police.

Patrick is afraid his job--and his reputation--will be at risk if he doesn't put an end to Erica's questioning immediately. And when the police start digging, Stephanie's trust in her husband begins to falter, and Patrick is primed to lose everything. As their marriage crumbles, Stephanie feels herself coming unglued, and soon she isn't sure what--or who--to believe. Now the most important thing is to protect her girls, but at what cost?