The Trapped Wife by Samantha Hayes
Genre: Domestic thriller, Psychological thriller, Suspense
Read: 4th September 2021
Published: 8th September 2021
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
The rain hammers the glass outside. My husband has stoked the wood burner with a fresh supply of logs, and I’ve just put a joint of beef in the oven. It’s the most clichéd Sunday afternoon ever, and it’s the most heavenly one, too. Little do I know that days later, the ash in the fire will be all that remains of us…
My perfect life…
I thought I had it all – a dream job as a doctor in small town, a stunning home and a family I adore – but that illusion shattered the moment my husband Jeremy left on a work trip and vanished without a trace. Now my son and I are all alone in the world.
My missing husband…
My best friend thinks Jeremy had an accident up in the mountains, that I’ll never see him again and need to move on. I know he loves us too much to ever abandon us, but my head is still spinning with the texts I found on his phone before he left. Did I ever really know the man I married?
The night I can’t remember…
Everything changed the night of the medical conference weeks before Jeremy disappeared. I wrack my brains for answers, but my memory goes blank after my first drink. Ever since, I’ve felt like I’m being followed and can’t explain why panic thunders in my chest every time I see my newest patient. If he’s not local to the village, then why does he seem so familiar? And so dangerous?
As I piece together the shards of what really happened that fateful evening, only one thing can possibly be true: everyone is lying, even me…
MY REVIEW:
I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Samantha Hayes' twisted thriller THE TRAPPED WIFE.
Whenever I begin a book by Samantha Hayes I am then reminded that her thrillers are slow burns which are not generally my favourite. But from past experience, despite their slow beginnings I am often pleasantly surprised to find that the book then redeems itself by everything coming together in a deluge of twists that have been expertly and intricately woven together. However I was more than surprised with THE TRAPPED WIFE because, despite being a slow burn, I was completely absorbed in the story from the very beginning. It honestly has to be one of the best books Samantha Hayes has written complete with complexities, twists and misdirection.
When we first meet Jen, she's still in the midst of grieving the loss of her husband Jeremy, killed in an avalanche whilst skiing in Switzerland. But life hadn't been all that easy for her prior to this either...not when she suspected Jeremy of having an affair with his attractive much younger French assistant Madeleine. So when she travelled to a three-day conference in Oxford just before Christmas, Jen trailed behind her colleagues into a bar where she indulged in a few too many wines which lead to cocktails being bought for her by some random stranger. After that, things kind of got a little hazy but she remembered waking up in her hotel room...naked...and in bed with someone who was not her husband. Just a couple of weeks later, on 2nd January, Jeremy was killed.
Now almost two months have passed and Jen is staring at the two lines on the stick she holds in her hand. She's pregnant. And Jeremy cannot be the father. Which means only one thing. One drunken night with a random stranger in Oxford. Oh gosh...what has she done?
With no real recollection of that night, except through the odd flashback, Jen's world begins to crumble as she must deal with an unexpected pregnancy at 42, her teenage son's unrequited love for her best friend's daughter Caitlin on top of his grief for his dad as well as her own barrage of emotions. To top things off, she gains a new patient at the surgery where she works as a GP who soon ingratiates himself in her life and her home where he has other plans for her.
From the first moment Scott Shaw enters Jen's surgery with his piercing gaze that never leaves her, it's apparent that he has a hidden agenda. What that is, we've yet to find out. If Jen thought him a bit intense on his first visit, imagine her surprise when he turns up at her house complete with hold-all containing several of his belongings and an excuse ready for his intrusion. I knew then that he wasn't going anywhere. He had something on Jen and he was going to milk it for all it was worth. As his intentions become clearer, Jen realises she has made a huge mistake and must now live with the consequences...because Scott is going nowhere.
Best friend Rhonda tries to support Jen as best she can but with Scott's sudden appearance comes the troubling sense of foreboding as well as her friend's unusual behaviour. She is concerned that there is something off about her friend's new house guest despite Jen assuring her that all is well and that he is an old friend of Jeremy's. She tries confiding in her copper husband Chris and as good a sounding board he is he isn't convinced that there is anything to worry about. If something is worrying Jen, why hasn't she confided in her, her best friend? And then she comes across some old photos and news clippings from the mid-90s before the school in which she now teaches became private. Photos that showed a very younger Jen, Jeremy and the face of a child killer. The news clippings relate to that tragedy in which 3 year old Lenny Taylor was lured from his grandmother's yard and later found beaten and drowned in the nearby reservoir. But it's what she sees in these photos that spurs her to delve further and find out the truth.
Alongside the present day story is one from the past. Evan Locke is a lonely 12 year old boy who has an appalling home-life in the nearby council estate. With no friends he soon becomes target to the mean girl who humiliates him in a way he could never forget. Just when life seems at its bleakest, Mac enters his life and they become firm friends. Best friends. They hang out, pilfer snacks from the nearby store and create a den in the woods where they could just be. Evan thought his luck had changed when he met Mac. At last he had a friend...someone he could count on to have his back. And he just knew that they would be friends forever.
But how does the past tie in with the present? Who is Evan to Jen, if he even is at all? And what has Rhonda uncovered in her quest for answers to Jeremy's alleged affair? When Rhonda notices Jeremy's ski equipment buried in the garage, she begins to wonder what really happened to him? Is Jeremy still alive and living in secret with his girlfriend? Who the hell is Scott and what does he really want with Jen? And why oh why can't she get rid of him? And what really happened on that drunken night in Oxford?
So many questions with so few answers...or are there? As the reader we have been tasked with trying to unravel the complexities and tie them together seamlessly before it's too late.
The story unfolds over the past and the present, expertly told by Jen and Rhonda in the present with Evan's narrative detailing the past which becomes disturbing as it unravels. At first I empathised with Jen and her situation but it isn't long before I became frustrated by her actions and decisions. Rhonda truly cares for her friend and wants to help her but for some reason Jen is keeping her at arm's length. Does this have anything to do with Scott? And as for his nibs, he is super creepy. He made my skin crawl from the first moment and I became even more uncomfortable by his unwanted presence and the story unfolded.
Intricately and expertly woven, THE TRAPPED WIFE is an addictive read from beginning to end. The undercurrent of malevolence, the sense of foreboding, the claustrophobic feeling in which you feel as powerless as Jen, who is trapped in a quagmire of her own making. You'd think as a doctor, an educated woman no less, she could find her way out of this situation with as little trouble as possible...but no. She just continues to make bad decision after bad decision. To be fair, she didn't want to disrupt her son Kieran's life any more than it already was. But she was also thinking of her own reputation as a doctor, a respected GP, if her secret was to get out. A secret of which she has little recollection...until the flashbacks become clearer and reveals every shocking moment.
THE TRAPPED WIFE is as intriguing as it is deceptive. As Jen's life unravels as the story progresses, every nuance, every secret is about to be revealed with an ending that will shock you. I wasn't completely hoodwinked though, having pieced together most of the puzzle of secrets but there was one final piece that I didn't see coming...and that DID shock me! Seriously...WOWsers! Could this tale get any more twisted?
I thoroughly enjoyed THE TRAPPED WIFE which literally blew me away. Certainly one of Ms Hayes' best thrillers to date. I have no doubt fans of domestic thrillers will devour this addictive read. Highly recommended.
I would like to thank #SamanthaHayes, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheTrappedWife in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
When not writing, Samantha loves to cook, go to the gym, see friends and drink nice wine. She is also studying for a degree in psychotherapy. She has three grown-up children and lives in Warwickshire.
Social Media links:
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Spoilers!
ReplyDeleteI'm only half way into this book. I think I have it figured it.....?
I think Scott is Evan?