The Perfect Husband by Iain Maitland
Genre: Domestic thriller, Suspense
Read: 23rd October 2022
Published: 19th October 2022
★★★ 2.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
He was gentle, kind, loving. Until he moved in.
A small-town barbeque in summer’s dying days. There, gentle, bookish Laura meets a man who makes her laugh, hangs on her every word.
He’s the one. Isn’t he?
But once Laura falls pregnant, Robert’s mask slips. She can never quite keep him happy. He is cold and judgemental with a temper that can flare up at any moment. He goes out for hours and won’t tell her where he’s been, he even locks her own door against her.
Laura realises she has married a total stranger, a man governed by dark impulses and darker secrets who seems determined to gain control of every part of her life. Who is this man she’s living with and what terrible things has he done?
As Laura slowly discovers the truth about Robert, she begins to realise that she and her unborn child are in terrible danger. And finally she understands she will have to answer one terrifying question – how far is she willing to go to protect her baby?
The Perfect Husband – the stunning psychological thriller from the author of The Girl Downstairs and Mr. Todd’s Reckoning.
MY THOUGHTS:
This is the second book by this author that I have tackled - the first I DNF and this one I only read because I accidentally downloaded it from Netgalley mistaking it for another book. And really, I'm not sure how to review this book because although it seemed to drone on, I found it almost impossible to put down!
Laura is an awkward shy self conscious 37 year old single woman at a neighbourhood BBQ when neighbour Harry introduces her to Robert. He is charming, good-looking and a successful investments advisor...and he is interested in her, hanging on to her every word. He walks her home that evening but is the complete gentleman. Laura knows she is at once in love.
And so their whirlwind romance begins and a few months later, Robert moves in and Laura couldn't be happier. But it isn't the happy ever after she imagined it would be. The charming, attentive man he had been suddenly morphs into an angry, dismissive tyrant, taking every opportunity to point out her flaws...of which there are many. He even has a little notebook in which he makes her write in detail her past indiscretions which he would later quiz her about...again and again. He isolates her and won't allow her to have friends, is furious if she is even a minute late home from work and he laughs at any attempt she makes to look attractive, accusing her of being a tart. He is jealous, controlling and abusive. He is not the man she fell in love with.
Who is this stranger she allowed to move into her house? She is on the verge of asking him to leave. She cannot live like this. And then she discovers she is pregnant. A baby. That's what they need. A baby will bring them closer again.
But she couldn't be more wrong.
I really wanted to like this book as it had all the ingredients. Lonely vulnerable woman meets who she thinks is the charming man of her dreams only for it to end in abuse. Enter pregnancy and a fight to save herself and that of her unborn child. I would follow her plight in which she would eventually find help and hopefully make her escape, assuming it would an intriguing and compelling story that only got better. I was wrong.
The first part was sluggishly slow in which Laura continually and repetitively droned on and one and continually second guessed herself. She obviously had her remaining self confidence destroyed by Robert's nit-picking remarks that chipped away at her. But gosh, her monologuing was truly depressing. I noted that the second part was nearing so I resolved to continue in the hope it would change pace at that stage...or at least, something...anything...would happen. Thankfully, and quite surprisingly, it did. I thought "yes, this is more like it!" but then the further I read Laura just kept going around in circles and second guessing everything she did or didn't do or could do but didn't. In the end, what did she do? Not a whole lot. Except continue to drone on and on.
The story was broken into three parts, with the first one slow and somewhat disturbing. I found Laura's behaviour frustrating as she went back and forth, to and fro between leaving or hoping to salvage their relationship. I'm not sure how she thought that was ever going to happen walking around on eggshells all the time. It was blindingly obvious how controlling Robert was and that nothing will salvage their relationship. I could sympathise with her to a point but in the end she was only fooling herself.
I was all ready to shelve this book until the end of part one, which ended with a shocking incident that left me turning the pages eagerly wanting to know what would happen next. This was more like it! The pace was ramped up as was the tension as I urged Laura on. But things started to spiral pretty quickly and it just continued downhill into the ridiculous. I kept reading in the hope it would improve...it didn't. And part three? Seriously?
By the time I got to the epilogue I was shaking my head. It was an interesting ending, I'll say that, but the entire book that culminated into what exactly? Laura's bad decisions, inaction and second guessing everything. She should have dialed 999 in the beginning and this would have been an entirely different story I'd be reviewing.
I will say I am not a fan of Iain Maitland's writing style. Sometimes I couldn't decipher whether what was written was actually happening or if it was all what "could happen" playing out in Laura's mind. She was clearly suffering mental health issues, and I'm not surprised given Robert's abuse and coercive control of her. She'd had a lonely upbringing with her elderly parents and though it is one she clearly cherishes, it set her up to become vulnerable later in life.
As I said in the beginning, this is a hard book to review...and rate...because it is riddled with so many frustrating decisions and actions that by the end I wasn't sure what to make of it. I must say that as the reader I felt so far apart from the other characters as if there were a great divide between Laura and everyone else. Particularly between Laura and Andrew. There was no connection between her and anyone. It was if she were an island and everyone was just floating around her, unable to reach them.
I wasn't surprised by the turn of events at the end as I suspected things heading that way anyway...I mean, where else could it possibly go if she didn't do anything but stand there and fret all day?
I would like to thank #IainMaitland, #Netgalley, #InkubatorBooks and #ZoolooTours for an ARC of #ThePerfectHusband in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Iain is also the author of two memoirs, Dear Michael, Love Dad (Hodder, 2016), a book of letters written to his eldest son who experienced depression and anorexia, and (co-authored with Michael) Out Of The Madhouse (Jessica Kingsley, 2018).
He is also an Ambassador for Stem4, the teenage mental health charity. He talks regularly about mental health issues in schools and colleges and workplaces.
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