Thursday 10 October 2013

Review ~ The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

17465450
Penguin Books UK
August 2013

My darling Cecilia.
If you’re reading this , then I've died.

When Cecilia Fitzpatrick discovers a letter written by her husband, that is only meant to be opened after his death, she is naturally curious. As her husband, John-Paul, is very much alive, she fights the urge to open the letter.  However, as we know, natural curiosity exists and before long Cecilia is aware of something bubbling beneath the surface of her successful life, and her once placid husband now seems strangely troubled by the idea that this letter has surfaced. What then follows is a clever dissection of family life, which shows, all too easily, the risk of unburdening secrets which have long been buried. The catastrophic events that are unleashed by the revelation of what this letter contains makes for interesting reading.

Initially, the book gets off to a slow start and the unexpected introduction, at chapter two, of a completely new set of characters threw me off track for a while and I didn't know where the story line was going to take me, but eventually the strands started to come together, and I became quite immersed in the way in which the author navigated through quite a complex plot. The characterisation was really well done, there are some interesting people, I especially liked the quirky headmistress of the primary school, whose antics during the Easter Bonnet parade made me smile, and I thought that Rachel Crowley acted with great dignity, her melt down, such as it was, was quite poignant.

I enjoyed putting the pieces of the puzzle together and well before the revelation of The Husband’s Secret, I did guess where the story was leading, but that didn't detract from the overall enjoyment.


My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books UK for my copy of this book


Liane Moriarty 



Liane Moriarty is the Australian author of five novels. Three Wishes, The Last Anniversary, What Alice Forgot, The Hypnotist's Love Story and The Husband's Secret.

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