My Husband's Secret by L.G. Davis
Genre: Domestic thriller, Suspense
Read: 17th September 2022
Published: 16th September 2022
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
I thought I knew my husband. I was wrong...
I have the perfect life: a loving marriage, and an adorable little daughter, Mia, who is always full of smiles. But when my husband Keith is hit by a car, my whole world is turned upside down. With my heart breaking in his cold white hospital room, I hold his hand and tell him how much I love him. Then just as Keith slips into a coma, I hear him say four words that change everything: I took a life.
Mia and I move into my childhood home with my parents for support, and I spend hours by Keith’s hospital bedside, willing him to wake up. I keep his last words to myself; I cannot believe my gentle husband would hurt anyone. But as I search through his belongings, it becomes clear that he was hiding something.
And when I discover a note in my parents’ attic, my breath catches in my throat. My husband is not the only one in my family with a dark secret, and I’m beginning to think what happened to him was far from an accident…
But just as I get closer to the truth, my daughter goes missing. I’ll do whatever it takes to save my child. But I soon realize I was wrong about everyone I thought I could trust…
Totally gripping and unputdownable domestic suspense about family secrets and lies. Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Diane Chamberlain.
MY THOUGHTS:
I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for L.G. Davis' tense domestic thriller MY HUSBAND'S SECRET.
I have only recently discovered L.G. Davis in just the past couple of months, having devoured two of her previous thrillers "Liar Liar" and "Perfect Parents" (previously titled "The Surrogate's Gift"). Both were intricately twisted, a little out there with a propensity to suspend belief...but were also equally addictive, compelling and totally unputdownable. I don't care if they are a little far fetched, as long as the story is engaging and keeps me turning the pages. And that goes for MY HUSBAND'S SECRET as well. After reading and loving all three of these domestic thrillers, I have to wonder where L.G. Davis has been hiding. She is a new-to-me author only a couple of months ago but she is one that I quickly go to and know I am going to be thoroughly entertained from start to finish as I try to guess the identity of her villain.
We meet Avery Watkins within the first pages as she runs a massage parlour with her best friend Celeste in the comfortable Willow Gate. Their business has been open a year and they are about to hire more masseuses to keep up with the thriving business and their newly acquired receptionist (former client) is a God-send.
And then Avery gets a call from the school at which her 7 year old daughter Mia attends to say that she has not been picked up. Avery is confused as her husband Keith was supposed to collect Mia some time ago but calls to his mobile go unanswered by both the school and Avery. Upon arriving home with Mia, Avery is then confronted with the sight of a waiting police care. This could not be good. Keith had been involved in an accident having been knocked off his bike with the driver then fleeing the scene. Avery is beside herself. After leaving Mia with Celeste, she rushes to the hospital to find her husband in a critical condition having undergone hours of surgery. She remains by his bedside and when he finally awakes, he struggles to speak managing only to whisper the words "I took a life" before slipping into a coma.
Avery is shocked. This cannot be true. Her husband is the kindest, gentlest and most honest person she knows. He is her best friend. She would know if he was hiding something like this...wouldn't she?
Calling on the support of her family, Avery moves back into her childhood home with Mia while she makes the daily journey to the hospital some forty minutes away. But she has never had a good relationship with either of her parents - her mother suffering bad bouts of anxiety and depression and her father is an alcoholic. Neither of them particularly present during her childhood. Their neighbour, Ruth, was Avery's only shining light. She was more of a mother to Avery than her own parents had been and is also Mia's godmother.
Avery juggles her time between ferrying Mia to school and at the hospital, leaving the business in Celeste's capable hands. But with each visit she sees no change in her husband and begins to wonder if he will ever wake up and explain the meaning of his last words. But the doctors assure her is coma gives him the best possible chance as he had sustained a serious head injury. So all she can do is hope.
In the meantime, she begins to do a little snooping to try and make sense of those words. Both she an Keith have kept a journal as a way of making sense of their thoughts and emotions but when she goes back to their empty house to search for it, it's gone. And Avery knows it was there when she packed some items for Keith for the hospital. So where is it? And then there is the added mood back with her parents. Something is amiss and it soon becomes very clear that they are keeping something from her. But what, she doesn't know.
The one shining light, aside from Ruth's unwavering support, is Mia's new teaching assistant at her school, Miss Campbell. Mia adores her and her presence has had a calming effect on her otherwise confused and emotional daughter. At the end of each day, Mia is full of excitement at the things Miss Campbell got her to do and the special projects she has assigned her. Avery is grateful that Mia can at least find solace there in an otherwise uncertain situation in which Avery finds herself now.
What is the secret her husband has been keeping? And what happened to the money that has miraculously disappeared from their joint bank account? Who would hate her husband enough to run him down so callously and then flee the scene without calling for help? And what secrets are her parents keeping from her?
Amidst the tense narrative told predominantly from Avery's perspective, we also have an anonymous one in the form of "The Watcher" who keeping tabs and watching Avery's every move and with particular interest in Mia, believing Avery to be self-absorbed and neglectful of her little girl. Trying to guess the identity of The Watcher is fraught with possibilities, red herrings and plenty of tension. I had a couple of suspects throughout narrowing it down to one by the end thanks to the little clues the author drip-fed us.
MY HUSBAND'S SECRET is an edge-of-your-seat read that keeps you engaged and entertained the entire way through. It doesn't matter how believeable or probable the story is...it's the ride and entertainment factor I enjoy. Some of it may be far fetched but that is one thing I have come to expect from L.G. Davis and it matters little to me because of the compelling nature of of her tales that are fraught with so much tension I simply don't want to put them down. And even though I was in something of a reading slump (due to some devastating personal news), I still managed to read this book in one day.
A totally twisted read is nothing if not exactly what I expect from this author who delivers such tense and addictive domestic thrillers with something of a sting in the tail at the end of each one. Every ending is climatic and every final word a cliffhanger. Each one of her thrillers I have read to date have left readers with something of an open ending. Something I don't usually like, but L.G. Davis delivers it perfectly and satisfactorily. She is one of my new go-to authors as I know I will never be disappointed with whatever twisted tale she has to offer...I just know I will enjoy it anyway.
I would like to thank #LGDavis, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #MyHusbandsSecret in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
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She now lives in Vienna, Austria, with her husband and two children.
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