"My Lovely Wife"

“My Lovely Wife”
Written by Samantha Downing
Review written by Diana Iozzia


“My Lovely Wife” was an incredible thriller, packed with brilliantly paced chapters, unique characters, well-developed plot points, calculated dialogue, and an exhilarating finale. I was expecting a certain type of thriller but received something completely different. This was terrific and terrifying.

Let’s begin. Our characters are the dimwitted and strange husband and the enigmatic, neurotic wife. Together, he lures in the victims that she kills. We run into an immediate problem: our characters need to find a way to keep the suspicion away from them and keep their family from falling apart due to fear of ‘the local serial killer’, Owen, who has ‘come back after years of inaction to seek further revenge’. Interesting premise, interesting execution. We hit the ball out of the park right away with an exciting exposition, intriguing beginning, and I do not think we hit a slow point throughout the entire book. Every moment is carefully planned to invite multiple interpretations. Who is happy? Who is manipulating whom? Who is more innocent? Are we, the readers, the bystanders in the horrific crimes?

As with any book, there will be aspects I personally do not enjoy. However, they are completely overshadowed by my love for the great aspects I found to be excellent. I think this is a stand-out thriller and deserves positive praise. Let me explained what I loved, then I’ll explain what I didn’t love.

Loved:
1. I thoroughly enjoyed the characterization. I thought the children were well-created and were given appropriate dialogue and actions. All too often, children are the weak points in books for me, acting either too young for their age or too much like adults. In addition, I thought that both husband and wife are phenomenally written. I love that we know every inner most thought of the husband, while we are never sure if we can trust him. In fact, we only know him by his alias, ‘Tobias’, since the novel is told in first person. We know about his wife, Millicent, but we only know what he tells us about her.

2. Our perspective through the words and thoughts of ‘Tobias’ allows us to remove ourselves. This takes us out of the murder and into the mind of the bystander. We are the ones who hear about Millicent and her horrific actions, but we really do not feel any sympathy for the victims. We do not see the crimes, so we are desensitized, as ‘Tobias’ is. We are complicit. The murders are all the more terrible, because we barely know what happened. Our imagination runs wild.

3. We receive a very satisfying ending. Oh, yes.

4. Do you know much about Anton Chekhov’s gun theory? Yes, please.

5. There is an aspect that I found to be very predictable about Millicent’s decision to place blame on Owen for the murders. However, after one of the final twists, I see why the author chose this route.

Didn’t Love:

1. I do not love the comparisons to “Dexter” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” that are plastered all over the book and in every description created by the publisher. This book does not remind me of either; it does not really remind me of any books or films.

2. As much as I loved the ending, I didn’t. I felt as satisfying and carnal as it was, it begs about four hundred other questions to which we will not have answers.

3. The beginning was not full of action. Slow, thorough and clever build-up, but I could imagine some readers would find this monotonous.

4. The ending is deeply unsettling. Wonderful for me, but I imagine some readers would not enjoy ambiguous conclusion.

In conclusion, I fell in love with this book. This will definitely be a new favorite for me. I cannot wait to read more by this author. And discuss this with every reader I know. Not even every reader. I’ll even talk to my neighbor’s dog about it.

I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to Berkley Publishing.