The Wife

The book that I stayed up into the night reading and FINISHED because I was in total suspense. This is Alafair Burke's novel THE WIFE.

Without revealing too much. Nice girl with a young son – meet cute nice guy with career about to skyrocket. This is her moment to move on. Just as his career is sky-high... Let's just say the subject is current, you might change who you're rooting for from chapter to chapter, and it is full of plenty of creepiness and intrigue to hold your attention. I love when a buddy read turns into a book that I need more of thanks girls! The Husband anyone???

I have been meaning to read an Alafair Burke novel for quite some time, since I have seen my favorite YouTuber (Audrey from Chapters and Converse) talk about her, and I am so glad that I finally did! I chose this book at random through my books-that-I-already-own-on-my-shelf wheel and am so glad that I did! It didn't completely blow me away but it was a very strong and solid court procedural type of thriller, where we try to figure out the truth amidst “he-said, she-said”. I haven't read that many court type of novels and they're definitely not my favorite but I really enjoyed this book and was pretty invested in the story.

To begin with, The Wife is about this woman, Angela, who's famous husband gets accused of sexual assault by a young intern. When he gets accused of something even more sinister, Angela has to chose whether to stand behind her man or put herself and her son first and keep her own secrets safe. I haven't read that many law procedural novels and wasn't sure how I was going to feel going into this but I definitely liked it. I would say that this particular trope in thrillers and mysteries isn't my absolute favorite but I still had a fun time reading it. I thought the pacing could've been a little faster to add a little more shock value to the story but it wasn't bad by any means. I prefer my novels to have a lot more twists and turns than this one had but I thought it was very well written and even though I was able to guess the ending halfway through the book, there were minor twists that I didn't guess or see coming whatsoever. In all, it wasn't bad.

Further on, the characterization was okay. It wasn't particularly memorable and the characters didn't resonate with me all that much but it was fun to be shocked by the actions of this woman who made absolutely no sense to me and whom is still a mystery because of the actions that she took and the way that she chose to act in particular situations. I thought that we could have gone more in depth into her psyche, especially given her tragic background but even so, I enjoyed getting to know this complicated woman and peeling the layers, one at a time. Nothing extraordinary but enjoyable nonetheless.

Finally, the writing style is what resonated with me the most in this novel. It propelled me forward and made me keep reading, even when I wasn't the most intrigued as to what was happening in the book. As I have stated multiple times, I love writing that is precise and to the point, without being choppy, and that is what I found to be the case in this book. I could picture things as they were happening and the author didn't go into too much description, for which I am grateful because that can to be a little too much in my opinion.

In conclusion, even though this book isn't one of my favorite court procedural mysteries of all time, it's not a bad one, especially for beginners to the genre, who are still trying to see if that whole trope is for them or not. Also, it's a relatively quick read so I would give it a try if you're curious and the synopsis catches your interest.

I enjoyed the book overall but I do think that the eventual revelation that the women were lying, while maybe necessary to keep the twists coming and reveal the big twist (which was an interesting if not entirely unpredictable one), wasn't really twisty itself and is obviously problematic. I spent a lot of the book wondering if the author would reveal their politics, and while I don't think the twist is an endorsement, it builds up these women to a real extent, somewhat intelligently presents all the things people tell themselves so as not to believe the victim, while presenting them in a way that seems to indicate it's not a great thing... and then says “yep that's right they weren't a victim” and that sucked