The Second Wife

This was a bit of an odd read for me. On the one hand, I whipped through it in less than a day, so it had enough to keep me turning the pages. But its plot and characters felt superficial and when I think about it, not a lot actually happened. 

But there was that little somethin' somethin' that kept me reading (even though I predicted the big twist early on and the tension never quite got going). This is a quieter read set in two time lines, mainly narrated by Alex and his second wife Natalie and the back and forth between their POVs kept the pace up, but I would have appreciated more depth to the characters and I think not giving the nefarious KK a bigger role was a missed opportunity to ramp up the suspense. 

It sounds like I didn't like the book, but it was a decent, lighter read. There are a couple of twists and some serendipitous connections that leave readers to question if anyone is who they say they are. But I wanted more tension and depth to the plot (and didn't buy into the idea that Alex was okay with his wife not telling him about her past) which greatly influenced how I felt about this book.

This was an okay read that was a bit farfetched. It had its good points, but the plot didn't provide the twists or darkness it had promised in its blurb. 

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Rebecca Fleet

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: Trade Paperback from public library

Pages: 336

Publisher: Doubleday Canada

First Published: August 18, 2020

Opening Line: It's past midnight and the lights along the pier are 

jumping points of static, reflected in silver glimmers on the sea.

Book Description from GoodReads: A twisty new thriller from the acclaimed author of The House Swap .

After the death of his first wife, Alex has been given a second lease on life with Natalie, to whom he is newly married. Living in Brighton with Alex's thirteen-year-old daughter, Jade, the couple seem to be made for one another.

But their idyllic domestic calm is soon shattered when Alex returns home one night to find that Jade and Natalie have narrowly escaped from a devastating house fire. Hospitalized and traumatized, Jade insists that she saw a man in their house on that fateful night, though Natalie resolutely disagrees.

In the wake of the fire, Natalie finally confides in Alex about a past that she has always kept hidden: eighteen years ago, she testified as a witness in a murder trial involving her reckless and defiant sister, Sadie, whose infatuation with a local gang leader, Kas, led her badly astray. Natalie was placed under witness protection and given a new identity; she has worked hard to build another life, but now it seems the past is catching up to her. And as Alex struggles to understand what really happened between the two sisters years ago, he is forced to recognize that his wife's actions are now putting his family at risk--and that perhaps he is more deeply involved than he ever realized.