📖 Book Review ~ The Serial Killers Wife by Alice Hunter

Avon 
27 May 2021

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

They’re saying he’s a monster. And they’re saying she knew.

Beth and Tom Hardcastle are the envy of their neighbourhood – they have the perfect marriage, the perfect house, the perfect family.

When the police knock on their door one evening, Beth panics. Tom should be back from work by now – what if he’s crashed his car? She fears the worst.

But the worst is beyond imagining.

As the interrogation begins, Beth will find herself questioning everything she believed about her husband.

They’re husband and wife – till death do them part..

My thoughts..

Beth Hardcastle seems to have the perfect life with a loving husband, a beautiful little daughter, called Poppy, and  a thriving business in the pretty Cotswold village they call home. One evening when Tom is late home from his London commute, Beth starts to worry, and then comes a knock at the door revealing two police officers. Filled with trepidation, and fearing the worst, Beth is unprepared when the police officers are not at her door with the news of an accident but have come to arrest Tom on suspicion of murder.

What then follows is the slow disintegration of the life which Beth has so carefully placed around and with her world toppling and Tom still helping police with their inquires everything about the Hardcastle's marriage comes under public scrutiny because if Tom is guilty of murder surely Beth knew all about it.

This is a really cleverly put together psychological thriller which moves along at a rapid pace with snappy and succinct chapters which not only give us Beth and Tom's versions of events but also interspersed are some rather dark sections which give an altogether sinister feeling to the story. I think what's enticing about The Serial Killer's Wife is the way that elements of doubt creep into the narrative and with the tension mounting with every page, so the hidden clues start to point towards a story which is as dark, as it is complex.

I started, and finished, the book in one sitting as this really is one of those stories where you want to read just a little bit more and towards the end of the novel, and with the final denouement just a few pages away, I wasn't really sure how the story would end, but I wasn't disappointed,and without giving anything away, the ending was every bit as good as I wanted it to be.

About the Author

After completing a psychology degree, Alice Hunter became an interventions facilitator in a prison. There, she was part of a team offering rehabilitation programmes to men serving sentences for a wide range of offences, often working with prisoners who'd committed serious violent crimes. Previously, Alice had been a nurse, working in the NHS. She now puts her experiences to good use in fiction. THE SERIAL KILLER'S WIFE draws heavily on her knowledge of psychology and the criminal mind.

Twitter @Alice_Hunter_1 #TheSerialKillersWife #DidSheKnow

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