His Wife’s Sister Review

He stole her childhood. Now she wants it back.

Mara Sitwell was only eleven when she went missing.

Nineteen years later, she’s found alone and confused wandering through remote woodland.

She says she was abducted and has been held captive in a tiny underground cell.

But no one knows if she’s telling the whole truth.

Her brother-in-law, Damian, certainly has his doubts and with Mara around begins to fear for the safety of his young family.

To save them, he’ll need to prove what really happened to her.

But it’s never easy to uncover the truth, especially when it’s been buried so deep…

Taken from his Amazon Author’s page:

I’ve always loved thrillers but psychological thrillers hold a special interest for me because they’re about the scary, insane, disturbing things that happen to ordinary people – and we can all relate to them on some level.

My first psychological thriller, Between the Lies was published in 2018, after writing a series of terrorism thrillers under my alternative name, Adrian Wills.

I was a journalist for more than 20 years, but I now run a busy communications department for a national charity in the UK.

I’m married to fellow psychological thriller author, A J McDine. We live in Kent with our two teenage boys and a fat cat called Minstrel.

Find out more about me at my website: adrian.wills.co.uk or email me [email protected]

Mara was kidnapped when she was eleven, chained, starved and beaten, kept in a hole under the floorboards. Nineteen years later she appears out of nowhere, found wandering in the wood, alone and traumatised. She just wants her sister back and her sister, Lucia, is ecstatic to see her and welcome her back to her family. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go as well as planned.

This has a fairly good plot, its well thought out in the main and has many twists and turns, some time of which you still aren’t quite sure which are real even by the end of the book. Some of the twists are a little predictable and a couple a bit bizarre and unbelievable. Majority of the book is told from Damian’s (Lucia’s husband) point of view and then switched to Mara, you aren’t quite sure who is telling the truth and who to believe.

The characters were well developed but none were particularly likeable. Damien is a bit weird and creepy, I spent part of the book thinking that he was connected to the kidnapping initially, although he would have been very young. He seems very possessive of Lucia but protective of his family though seems quite attention-seeking. Then he turns and it’s difficult to tell if he has always been like that or if it’s a reaction to his new situation.

Lucia is understandably excited to see her sister and to welcome her into her family, she goes above and beyond because she feels so guilty but seems to completely ignore her own children despite calling numerous times a day to check they are being cared for… it doesn’t quite add up.

Mara is a complex and difficult character, she is obviously very disturbed by her treatment over her kidnapping but at the same time James Finch, her abductor, is the only person she has known for 19 years so she is attached to him. She seems to be awkward and difficult, wanting her sister to herself but not necessarily as disturbed as you would imagine.

This was a good book in that it drew me in well and kept me focused and entertained throughout. It has a good pace and, although it left me with more questions than answers I really enjoyed it. The ending is a little too quick and convenient which spoilt it slightly. It’s well written and the words flowed nicely, with plenty of descriptions but not too many.

“Finally, please don’t bombard her with questions. I know you’ll have lots you want to ask, but be patient and let her open up to you in her own time.”

Thank you to Net Galley, the Publisher and the Author for a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Title	His Wife’s Sister
Author	A J Wills
Series	N/A
Format	eARC
Page Count	368 Pages
Genre	Psychological Fiction
Publisher	Cherry Tree Publishing
Release Date	7th May 2020