The novel’s plot is as provocative as its title, and the book nicely fits into the psychological suspense genre that’s riding a slipstream of popularity... Set mostly in London, this twisty-turny tale begins in 2000 and chronicles early days in the marriage of Lily MacDonald, a 26-year-old lawyer, and Ed, her budding-artist husband ... More than a decade will pass before Carla comes back into the MacDonalds’ lives. That’s when this novel’s seemingly unending trove of delicious disasters and deceits meld to reveal what all these characters are hiding ... The addictive My Husband’s Wife is populated with messed-up yet sympathetic misfits who remind us that the past can maintain a stranglehold on the future. The ending is weirdly outrageous, but satisfying.
The narrative is split between two distinct time frames. The first opens with the events surrounding Lily and Ed’s first meeting with Carla, and closes with the dramatic outcome of Thomas’ re-trial. We then move forward 15 years ... This is quite a long book, but author Jane Corry makes use of the available space to slowly but surely built up a sense of unease and mistrust between the main characters ... There is a dramatic betrayal, a violent death, and we also learn the true reason behind Lily’s obsession with her late brother ... This is a very cleverly written book, and Corry has created enough flawed characters to keep even Thomas Hardy fans happy ... To stick with the fire metaphor, the book is something of a slow burn, but there are twists, turns and upsets a-plenty, not to mention heartaches, in the final third of the story.
While meant to be a thriller, the uneven pacing might cause some readers to put the book down before the twists start. It was hard to get emotionally invested in any of the characters, whose internal struggles lacked depth and subtlety ...hard to figure out where Corry will take the plot next, which many readers will love ... Fresh home from her honeymoon, Lily finds herself in the middle of a life-changing trial ... At home things aren’t all sunshine either, as Lilly finds herself wondering if her whirlwind romance may be been a little too good to be true.
