One in Three by Tess Stimson
Genre: Domestic thriller
Read: 30th April 2021
Published: 9th July 2020
★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
Both of them loved him. One of them killed him . . .
Louise has had to watch her husband, Andrew, start a new family in the four years since he left her. The ‘other woman’ is now his wife – but Louise isn’t ready to let Caz enjoy the life that was once hers, or to let go of the man she still loves.
As Louise starts to dig into Caz’s past, the two women’s pretence of civility starts to slip. But in trying to undermine each other, they discover more about the man they both married.
And when Andrew is murdered at a family party, both women are found standing over the body.
It’s always the wife. But which one?
MY REVIEW:
One in three marriages end in divorce. This one ends in murder.
My first book by Tess Stimson was "Picture of Innocence", published in the US as "A Mother's Secret", and I totally loved that book and thought it would be a tough one to beat...but ONE IN THREE comes pretty damn close! Oh. My. Gosh! What a twisted ride this was! I was hooked from the very first page in this twisted but addictive conflict between Louise and Caz that delivered shock after shock until the very end. Just WOW!
Introducing the cast of characters, we have:
Andrew, the husband
Caz, the current young wife
Louise, the ex-wife that can't quite move on.
All three will attend a family celebration but only two will survive.
The opening scenes are explosive with the murder of the charismatic hubby, Andrew Page, having been stabbed to death with both his wife Caz and his ex-wife Louise in a tussle beside the body covered in his blood. But the question remains - which one killed him? And why?
The story then rewinds to seven weeks before that fateful night, when all hell breaks loose when Louise discovers that her mother Celia has invited her ex-husband Andrew and his trophy wife Caz to their 50th wedding anniversary party to take place on the beautiful and secluded Burgh Island in Devon. How can Louise be expected to move on if her mother continues to include Andrew in their lives, despite the fact he left them to shack up with his mistress? Louise is livid as is her doctor sister-in-law Min, who married to Louise's brother Luke. Why would Celia even invite them knowing how it rip her daughter's heart out just seeing them together? But no amount of cajoling from Louise, Min or even Celia's husband Brian would make Celia change her mind. She loves Andrew as if he were her own son and like it or not he is still a part of the family, given that he fathered Louise's two children, Bella and Tolly.
Louise has never really gotten over Andrew leaving her for a younger model, his mistress no less with whom he was cheating on her throughout the last year of their marriage. But when Louise fell pregnant with Tolly, she thought they had a chance...and so he stayed. And they were happy. But then he left her one week after their son was born straight into Caz's arms, marrying her as soon as the divorce was final. That was four years ago. And yet still Louise holds on to the hope that he will come back to them.
A TV newsreader, Andrew is charismatic and charming, but he was not husband of the year. Despite walking out on Louise a week after Tolly's birth, she would always be the woman he loved and he made no secret of the fact that as his second wife Caz would therefore be second choice and second place - a consolation prize to the one he really wanted. Sharing children with Louise has kept him more involved with them than Caz is comfortable with, even after the birth of their son Kit.
And then the invitation arrives. Caz doesn't want to go and Louise definitely doesn't want either of them there. But Andrew insists the two women bury the hatchet...preferably not in each other's backs.
And so we watch as both women set out to destroy the other...
The events leading up to the party are told through the alternating narratives of Louise and Caz, both women are unreliable narrators, making it difficult to work out just who is telling the truth. Which one of them is lying...or is it neither of them? There is the odd chapter from sister in law Min's perspective as she outlays her growing worry over Louise and her mental health, leading readers to wonder just how much truth is there to Louise's narrative? The clever insertion of excerpts of police interviews in the wake of Andrew's death with various witnesses and family members only adds to the growing tension as bit by bit clues are gradually revealed. What exactly was going on? And which one of them is lying?
I have to say, I was totally Team Louise and sympathised with her far more than Caz who knew what she was doing when she got involved with Andrew. I've no sympathy for a woman who went in knowing full well that he was married and laid her claim on him anyway and yet expected sympathy and understanding when he kept running back to wife #1! What did she expect? She made her bed...as her mother wisely told her. The same mother she secreted away in a rambling council-run care home in Dagenham in Essex away from the perfect life she had built for herself. Caz had secrets, of that I was sure, and I'd no doubt they told a different tale than the one she portrayed to everyone else. I didn't trust her from the beginning...
Louise, however, I did sympathise with. To love someone so completely that you envision growing old together, with your grandchildren running around you someday. And then in the blink of an eye, it's over. He has left you for a younger trophy wife and your world falls apart. I could see Louise struggling with trying to move on, and she did make an effort to do so, but her mother constantly shoving Andrew in her face made it difficult. How was she to move on if her mother kept inviting him over? Yes, they shared children together but that should have been the extent of their involvement with one another. Of course, Louise wasn't perfect. But her war with Caz began out of one woman's jealousy of the other...until it culminated into who was going to one up the other. Despite this, my loyalty remained with Louise throughout.
The children are always the ones caught in the crossfire. Louise and Andrew failed to see the struggles going on with their 16 year old daughter but Caz did. But did that make her a good mother...or was it an opportunity she saw to get at Louise? Nothing these parents did benefited their children as they were caught up in their hate-fuelled war with one another with Andrew trying to calm the waters between the warring women. But when Louise did see Bella's pain, she halted any further sparring with Caz. Her daughter was more important. But Caz? She happily left her son in London with the neighbour with no further thought of him while she sat in their Brighton house fuming at Andrew being with Louise...and lying about it! Is she surprised? Once a cheater, always a cheater. But did her son's wellbeing not come first? No. In fact he didn't even factor in as she drew her final card to play against Louise.
While Andrew tries to diffuse the animosity between the two women and placate them...is he as blameless as he seems? Both women acted abhorrently at times, but it was Caz I found to be the most selfish. And yet she was surprised by her husband's behaviour. If a man cheats on one wife with another, chances are he will cheat on you too. Did Caz really think she was THAT special that he wouldn't stray from her?
ONE IN THREE is an addictive fast paced thriller that will have you questioning the reliability of each narrative. Neither woman is innocent but are they guilty of murder? And if so, which one? Who to believe?
The characters are well-developed and there are times you love to hate them as well as sympathise with them. I cannot imagine what Louise's mother was thinking forcing her daughter's ex-husband and his new trophy wife on her when her loyalty should have been with her daughter! And while Andrew appeared to be the good guy caught in the middle, was he really? Or was this battle a war of his own making? The only thing I would have loved to see, and didn't, would be a showdown with Caz's mother revealing everything to all.
I could rave about this book all day though it would be difficult not to reveal a spoiler or two. But it is THAT good! I despaired when I had to put the book down to go to sleep and at any time I was interrupted. I simply couldn't put it down! I relished every gory detail and each drama played out by one or the other woman and couldn't wait to see what was coming next. I began to suspect who was the murderer but even then it was too easy...until I grasped another suspect. Was I right? In the end, I was but...it felt a little flat when the motive was revealed...even if the opportunity was slightly unbelievable. There were three I would happily have seen as the murderer, and although one of them was, I would have been far happier if the one of the others had been. Not for any other reason than because it would have been a shocking twist that you would not see coming.
I will say that unfortunately there is a little animal abuse featured, though it wasn't gory or detailed it was enough to dampen the story a little. And for this reason I have deducted half a star. I wish authors would stop with the animal mutilation or abuse or graphic death of an animal. It is not needed and puts off a lot of readers. Had it been a dog, I would have been weeping buckets and probably would have found it difficult to continue.
Overall, though, ONE IN THREE is a brilliant domestic thriller that will leave you guessing right up to the end. Perfect for fans of Sue Watson, Shalini Boland, K.L. Slater and Lisa Jewell.
I would like to thank #TessStimson, #Netgalley and #AvonBooks for an ARC of #OneInThree in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Since then, she's written more than a dozen novels, numerous short stories, and two non-fiction books, which have been published internationally and translated into more than twenty languages.
In recent years, Tess has moved away from writing women’s fiction and towards darker psychological thrillers, which seem to suit her personality better. As well as writing fiction she continues to work as a journalist, and also teach reporting for media and creative writing at a university in the North-Eastern US.
Tess live in Vermont with her husband, and am visited intermittently by her three grown-up children whenever they need their laundry done.
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