One of my friends raved about this book and one of my favorite narrators performs one of the parts in the Audible edition so it wasn’t a hard sell to get me to read this book.
Our book club ladies are avid murder mystery/thriller readers so it’s sometimes hard to find books that we all haven’t read but even though this wasn’t an official book club pick, many of us read it based on one of our members suggestions.
I didn’t know much more than that based on her recommendation but I was eager to check it out all the same. When I started listening to it, I was hooked. I loved all of the narrators and thought they did an amazing job with their performance! That’s what hooked me and then they odd story that followed.
Summary
Both of them loved him. One of them killed him . . .
Louise has had to watch her husband, Andrew, start a new family in the four years since he left her. The ‘other woman’ is now his wife – but Louise isn’t ready to let Caz enjoy the life that was once hers, or to let go of the man she still loves.
As Louise starts to dig into Caz’s past, the two women’s pretense of civility starts to slip. But in trying to undermine each other, they discover more about the man they both married.
And when Andrew is murdered at a family party, both women are found standing over the body.
And when Andrew is murdered during the anniversary celebrations, both women are found standing over the body.
It’s always the wife. But which one? (summary from Goodreads)
Review
This book was an odd book. Not odd bad, but odd good. This was just the kind of thriller that I like, grey characters, unreliable narrators, and unexpected twists. I have to admit I absolutely hated all of the characters but yet at times many of the elicited sympathy from me which was unexpected. Louise and Caz are both connected to Andrew, Louise and the first wife and Caz as the second.
Each time we read from one of their perspectives I would feel sorry for them and hate the other. For example, when I would read from Louise how terrible Caz was toward her, I hated Caz and felt sorry for Louise but then when I would read from Caz about something that Louise did to her, I hated Louise and felt so sorry fr Caz.
This went on for the entire book and I kept ping ponging between the various POVs and trying to decide who was telling the truth about what and when. It really kept me on my toes. The only consistent character I couldn’t stand was Andrew. I really hated him but at the same time understood why each of the women felt this need to hold on to him in spite of themselves.
One of the things that I liked best about this novel was that there was no real clear answer about who was lying and about what. There was no real admission by either character about anything except for once. And while I sort of guessed who the murderer was early on, I had no trouble continuing with this one and trying to decide which ex wife was responsible or what they were lying about etc.
Overall this one was very enjoyable and I can see why my friend raved about it. While I may not have liked any of the characters, I felt like that was the point and it made the book all the more interesting. At the end of the day, Andrew was the true villain of this story and that’s giving nothing away.
Book Info and Rating
Audible Audio, Unabridged
Published July 9th 2020 by Avon
ASINB 08CHKD3D8
Review copy provided by personal collection. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced.
Rating: 4 stars
Genre: thriller
The Lit Bitch 