REVIEW: My Husband's Lie by Emma Davies

My Husband's Lie by Emma Davies

Genre: Contemporary fiction, Women's fiction, Mystery

Read: 3rd August 2020

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Published: 9th April 2020

★★★★ 4 stars

DESCRIPTION:

When I stumbled across the listing for Pevensey House I knew I had found a way for my family to be free and I didn’t hesitate. I should have, I know that now…

When Thea sees her old family home is up for sale – a beautiful old rectory in the small town where she and her childhood sweetheart, now husband, Drew, grew up – she knows she has to have it. Her parents moved her away suddenly when she was eleven, but her childhood there was filled with happy memories. Drew seems less sure, but Thea is certain it’s the perfect place to raise their two children.

But as the last boxes are unpacked, Thea can’t seem to settle. She thought the move would bring her family closer together, but Drew is growing more distant. And why do old friends cross to the other side of the road when they see her coming?

Alone in the house, exploring the creaky corridors she used to cartwheel down as a young girl, Thea smiles as she slides open the loose panel she once used as a hiding place. But it only takes one look at the faded local newspaper clipping hidden inside for the bonds holding her perfect family together to break.

It’s not long before news of the scandal spreads further and the whole town turns against her. Thea’s life is in freefall as her head and her heart wrestle between taking the blame, and fighting for her innocence. In a small town where no one ever forgets the past, can Thea find a way to save her family’s future?


MY REVIEW:

I'm not normally a fan of contemporary fiction but if it has a little mystery thrown into it, then you can usually sell it to me. MY HUSBAND'S LIE by Emma Davies is my first by this author and it did not disappoint. This domestic drama is tinged with suspense and packed with secrets, rumours and a lot of lies.

Thea and Drew are excited to return to the village in which they grew up, not only for the village but for the house that Thea where all her childhood memories are nothing but happy ones. And now Thea just knows that Pevensey House is the perfect place to raise her family and where her girls, Chloe and Lauren, will thrive away from the choking pollution and snarling traffic of London. It is somewhere safe to grow up...or at least that's what they thought.

Upon their arrival, Thea befriends neighbours Anna and Rob who now live in Rose Cottage where Drew and his family once did. They have a young daughter Tilly who is the same age as Lauren and the two girls hit it off immediately. Born with a congenital deformity, Tilly only has one arm but it doesn't dissuade her from life. But it does make her a target for bullies at school. And when one such bully victimises Tilly in the playground, Lauren immediately jumps to her defence...punching the boy and bringing herself attention to the school's head teacher.

But the victimising doesn't end there. Nor does it end with Tilly or Lauren. Soon Thea finds herself the subject of malicious gossip when an incident that took place when she was just a child is thrust at her doorstep and she is left to question everything about her childhood as she knew it. Was it all just a lie?

When Thea confides in Drew she is shocked to learn that he knew about it already! So why did he not tell her? Why keep it from her? Had she known would she have been so ready to move back here? And if he has kept this from her all these years, what else has he kept from her? Thea thought she knew him...but does she know him at all?

When Thea decides to take matters into her own hands to show the other parents that she was not afraid of their malicious lies, things only end up worse - for both her and for Anna. How can Thea to make things right for them both now? And without Drew in her corner how can she to get through this?

MY HUSBAND'S LIE is filled to the brim of gossipy mums and a judgemental village. Who needs Twitter or Facebook or WhatsApp when you have the village grapevine to stir up trouble? But more than that, the story also focuses on the power of friendship and it reminds us of the power that our words can have on others. And whatever may have happened, whether there was any truth to the rumours, there are always families of those left behind that will feel the aftershock in the ripples that remain in tragedy's wake. Sadly these are collateral damage in the fallout...but they are also innocent. But the gossip-mongers do not think of that when they spread their vicious lies...and the hurt they may cause.

The story unfolds solely in Thea's narrative - with Drew's voice included in the prologue and the epilogue - MY HUSBAND'S LIE is not a whodunit but it there is an element of mystery with a touch of suspense. And a whole load of colourful characters that make up the sterling cast in a small-minded village in a sleepy corner of Shropshire.

A rather good read that I found surprisingly enjoyable, despite its slow start, MY HUSBAND'S LIE is addictive and somewhat compelling to uncover the truth. And thankfully, there is a kind of closure to the mystery behind the village gossip, which made for a satisfying end.

I would like to thank #EmmaDavies, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #MyHusbandsLie in exchange for an honest review.


MEET THE AUTHOR:

Emma Davies once applied for her dream job in the following manner;

'I am a bestselling novelist currently masquerading as a thirty something mother of three.' Well she's now a forty something mother of three, and is working on the rest.

By day she's a finance manager and looks at numbers a lot of the time, but by night she gets to use actual words and practices putting them together into sentences. Her twitter bio says she loves her family, her job, reading, writing, singing loudly in the car, and Pringles, so that must be true then.

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