The Stranger's Wife (Detective Dan Riley #3) by Anna-Lou Weatherley
Genre: Domestic thriller, psychological thriller, crime fiction
Read: 16th March 2020
Purchase: Amazon
(publication date: 16th January 2020)
★★★★★ 5 stars
When I requested THE STRANGER'S WIFE on Netgalley I didn't realise it was the third book in a series. But that's OK as it reads great as a standalone. I enjoyed it so much that I am looking forward to reading the first two featuring Detective Dan Riley.
As psychological or domestic thrillers go, THE STRANGER'S WIFE is perfect in just about every way. The layers of suspense that builds throughout just pulls you in from the very first page and never lets up till the end. It was so psychological, so twisted but oh so brilliant!
June 2018: Beth Lawler arrives home to discover her four year old daughter Lily is alone in the house, asleep, and her nanny is nowhere to be found. Her car is still on the driveway, handbag draped on the chair, but her mobile phone is missing...as is her passport and some of her clothes. Beth immediately calls Marta's phone but it is switched off. She begins to worry and frantically searches the house again. Then she notices something strange...the back doors to the yard are open and Marta's silk scarf is on the lawn. She calls the police and her husband Evan, but cannot shake the feeling that something untoward has happened. Marta has always been incredibly reliable, she would never leave of her own volition...would she? Or is it something more sinister?
April 2019: Cath Patterson has arrived at A&E covered in bruises with a black eyes, a split lip, three shattered fingers, a cracked rib...and in labour. The beating she had received from her partner Saul Bennett was the worst he had given her and although she claimed her injuries were a result of a car accident, she knew they saw right through it. She arrived broken and smashed clutching her swollen belly with her baby of 38 weeks. She remembered feeling the baby wriggle throughout the beating but afterwards...nothing. She knew then that her little baby was gone. And so through the excruciating pain she delivers her stillborn child into the world, a little boy she named Cody. When the nurses return with him swaddled in blankets, Cath held him and whispered to him "I'm sorry Cody, my beautiful angel. Mummy loves you and I'm sorry."
October 2019: Detective Dan Riley is called to the scene of a particularly gruesome murder in a penthouse apartment. The victim has been shot in the head as he lay half dressed and he has been there for some days. The ID in his wallet lists him as Evan Lawler, owner of a prestigious construction business responsible for designing the very building they now find themselves in. But that's not all...Evan Lawler owns the penthouse apartment himself, despite living in a prestigious area of London in a grand house with his wife and child. So what was he doing here? And where had he heard the name Lawler before? The investigation will lead Dan to question all that he knows and all that he believes with one of the most difficult decisions of his career.
THE STRANGER'S WIFE is a story about two very different women - Beth and Cath. Beth is wealthy and in a loveless marriage but has found love with a man who gives her the kindness and love that her cold detached husband does not. Cath is poor with a violently abusive partner who spends most of their money on drugs. Both are suffering at the hands of their partners. Both are in toxic relationships. And neither can see any way out of their situations. These two women who have completely different lives in two different cities with nothing in common and under ordinary circumstances they might never have met. Until they do. Then one afternoon on the 3.15pm train from London to Bristol, fate intervenes and their lives are changed forever.
From the perspectives of Beth, Cath and Dan, we are given a clear insight into each person's lives and as the story unfolds we see the secrets, the lies, the duplicity, the betrayal woven into a dark and twisted tale of revenge. There are aspects which are brutal as we are given a glimpse into the reality that is domestic abuse and the helplessness of each woman living in their abusive relationship. The psychological, emotional, manipulative and coercive control that is just as damaging as physical abuse is distressing in parts to read but also crucial to the cleverly written plot, which was extremely evocative. You will be enraged as the blood rises from a simmer to boiling point.
THE STRANGER'S WIFE delivers a tale that cautions us that those closest to us may not be all we think they are. It warns us how well do we really know another person. And then it throws us a moral dilemma that leaves us questioning everything we thought we believed to be right.
Although this is the third installment in the series, this is my introduction to DI Dan and I really like him. He is no nonsense but fair, loves his work and takes it seriously without being heavy handed or arrogant. One of the real "good guys" you'd want to have on your side. Like all police protagonists, he has a personal life that is woven into the narrative but doesn't overshadow the main story.
As for Beth and Cath - I liked both of them. Their strengths and their weaknesses were integral to the story and I love how each were manipulated to cross a line that neither of them thought they ever would. It raises questions about the law, justice and morality leaving us wondering what would we do if we ever found ourselves in such a situation? And as the conclusion nears, the reader ponders exactly how it would all end. As much as I wanted Dan to solve the case, I also didn't want him to.
A fast-paced read, THE STRANGER'S WIFE is a fantastic 5-star read that had me swiping the pages on my kindle to discover the fate of the characters I had since grown attached to.
While, yes, the plot reaches a point that we know the direction it is headed, it still gives us a unique twist on an already familiar concept reminiscent of the well-known Hitchcock movie "Strangers on a Train".
I cannot believe I have not come across Anna-Lou Weatherley before. Where has she been hiding, I must ask? I have yet to read the other two in this series and genre, but THE STRANGER'S WIFE (for me) is a compelling and addictive read that had me absorbed from beginning to end...and up till way past my bedtime!
A must read for fans of psychological and domestic thrillers.
I would like to thank #AnnaLouWeatherley, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheStrangersWife in exchange for an honest review.
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