Beth Murphy is on the run…
For nearly a year, Beth has been planning for this day. A day some people might call any other Wednesday, but Beth prefers to see it as her new beginning―one with a new look, new name and new city. Beth has given her plan significant thought, because one small slip and her violent husband will find her.
Derrick likes to pocket my shortcomings and failures, store them in his basement-brain like dormant Molotov cocktails. Weeks or months or year from now, when the rest of the world and I have moved on, he’ll toss one into a conversation just to see the fireworks.
Sabine Hardison is missing…
A couple hundred miles away, Jeffrey returns home from a work trip to find his wife, Sabine, is missing. Wherever she is, she’s taken almost nothing with her. Her abandoned car is the only evidence the police have, and all signs point to foul play.
As the police search for leads, the case becomes more and more convoluted. Sabine’s carefully laid plans for her future indicate trouble at home, and a husband who would be better off with her gone. The detective on the case will stop at nothing to find out what happened and bring this missing woman home.
Where is Sabine? And who is Beth? The only thing that’s certain is that someone is lying and the truth won’t stay buried for long…
Kimberly Belle is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of five novels, including the forthcoming domestic suspense, Dear Wife (June 2019). Her third novel, The Marriage Lie, was a semifinalist in the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Mystery & Thriller, and her work has been translated into a dozen languages. A graduate of Agnes Scott College, Belle divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam.
I think I may be one of the few who didn’t love this book. I don’t think it’s up to Kimberley Belle’s usual standard. The story is told from three perspectives, Jeffery, Beth and Marcus.
The story starts out strongly, Jeffery returns home after a 4-day work trip to find his wife, Sabine, a local real estate agent, absent and their house not up to its usual standards. When she fails to return after a house viewing, he begins to worry and calls her twin sister who will know where she is. When she doesn’t know he reports Sabine to the police as a missing person. When it becomes clear that the marriage is troubled and Sabine has a new lover, she was planning to leave Jeffery for, the police effectively begin a murder investigation and look for her body.
Meanwhile, Beth (not her real name) is on the run from her abusive husband, terrified that he will find her, she changes her appearance, assumes a false identity, and sets some traps trying to lead him in another direction.
Marcus is the detective leading the investigation into Sabine’s disappearance. Obviously, he initially suspects the husband Jeffery but as the plot unfolds all is not what it seems.
There are plenty of red herrings in this book, some more relevant than others. At first, you think that ‘Beth’ must be Sabine but as the story goes along there are some inconsistencies. Sabine is “a real estate broker, a really good one” who earns far more than her husband Jeffery who doesn’t even know the name of her boss. In contrast, the “you” Beth speaks of appears to know every detail of her life, she has gone through a very laborious process to scrape together her $2,000 escape fund “Ten and twenties mostly siphoned from grocery funds, birthday and Christmas money, forgotten bills swiped from your pockets when you were passed out. Saving as a long, laborious process that took me almost a year to do in a way that you wouldn’t notice. I bought things on discount and shopped sales. I switched to cheaper toilet paper, coffee, washing powder. Ironically, I stopped cutting my hair.”
So here began the doubt…who is Beth? And, if Beth and Sabine are different people, where is Sabine? Will Beth’s husband track her down and how? Will she survive him finding her? What is going to happen with Sabine? Is she still alive? So many questions but a lot of the answers become clear quickly and fairly obvious.
The main characters are well developed. We know a lot about Beth and how she ended up where she is, we learn a lot about Jeffery and the type of relationships he has and of Marcus and what kind of detective he is as well as his personality. The other characters are a little brief, we meet many along the way.
While the plot is good, is interesting and well thought out for me it lacked that speed, the compelling nature to turn each page and get to the next chapter as quickly as possible that’s in so many thrillers now. For that reason alone, I would mark it down a little. I even managed a couple of naps while reading this and it took me a couple of days which isn’t normally the case when I have time to read.
Despite that, I enjoyed this book and it had a good ending, all the ends are tied up nicely with people getting their just desserts. I would recommend it but wouldn’t push it up your to be read pile too quickly.
| Title | Dear Wife |
| Author | Kimberly Belle |
| Series | N/A |
| Format | Kindle |
| Page Count | 336 Pages |
| Genre | Mysteries & Thrillers |
| Publisher | HQ |
| Release Date | 16th April 2020 |
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