The Marriage Counselor by Dea Poirier
Genre: Domestic thriller, Suspense
Read: 22nd April 2023
Published: 24th April 2023
★★ 2.5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
“Adele, we believe your husband is missing.” As everything around me starts to blur, I go over the words once more: “your husband is missing.” Four simple words with the power to shatter my whole world in an instant.
Working as a marriage counselor I’m used to the tragedies that come out of nowhere. People trust me to help them through life’s big moments. The things that leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about the person you love the most.
But I never thought trouble would land on my own doorstep.
As I start to piece together our last conversation desperate for any clues I can find, the cop standing in front of me reveals that my husband never told his co-workers he was married. He was seemingly living a double life right in front of me.
Days later, as I search through our home, I discover a hidden box of baby clothes that suggest my husband was starting to build the perfect life without me.
My entire career has been built on separating the truth from the lies. My husband may think he has pulled off the greatest lie of all but he is not the only one keeping a secret in this marriage.
All I know for certain is that when the truth comes out, only one of us will make it out alive.
A totally addictive and unputdownable psychological thriller about deadly obsession and twisted lies perfect for fans of Gone Girl, The Perfect Marriage, The Wife Before Me and anything by Freida McFadden.
MY THOUGHTS:
"You trust her with your darkest secrets...you shouldn't..."
I really don't know what to think of this book. On the one hand it seriously messes with your head...yet on the other, it seriously messes with your head! Seriously, it is twisted and not always in a good way. And yet all throughout you don't know who you can trust. And the main character, Adele, was so completely unreliable I didn't know if I could trust her either!
The premise for this book had me hooked right away. Missing husband of a marriage counsellor? Sign me up! No, not for one of her sessions...somehow I don't think she'd be the best fit for marriage counselling under the circumstances. But for a peek into her own troublesome marriage? Now that I'd be interested in.
Adele is no stranger to fame. Her parents were daytime TV pop-psychologists of the nineties who went on to make a killing...before being killed in a car accident themselves. Now two decades later, she's married to Patrick and opens the door one morning to a police officer who was once her boyfriend, some fifteen years ago. More cheesy daytime TV plot? It seems so. Anyway, Cameron the cop has come knocking for a welfare check on her husband Patrick who apparently hasn't turned up for work. In fact, today was his first day back after a two week vacation. Which was news to Adele who had seen hubby off to work every morning and returning every night. So where was he going every day, if not work? And where was he now if not at work?
But that's not all of it. Apparently, none of his colleagues know anything of Adele's existence. They've only been married seven years and he's worked at the company for three, so what did he tell them of his private life? But this secrecy was only the beginning. The more Adele delved, the more she discovered Patrick lied, cheated and stole from her...and others. Did she even know him at all?
What amazed me was that throughout all this going on Adele continued to meet clients, with the help of Emma who worked as her assistant. I'm not sure what else Emma's role was besides a grade A bitch. The way she spoke to Adele was just mindblowing and the fact that Adele just let it go like water off a duck's back just made my head hurt.
And then just when things couldn't get any worse...someone is out to trash Adele's reputation by digging into her parents' deaths and the cloud that apparently now surrounds their celebrity status. It doesn't matter that Adele doesn't talk to them, they hash it out on national TV anyway. And Adele's business begins to suffer and Emma becomes even bitchier (if that's possible).
And then things start to get a little confusing. Bodies begin to start piling up at such a speed I wondered if there would be any characters left by the end of it!
I still don't even know what to think of of this book. I feel I must give it a good review (being on the tour and all) but how? The plot was just ridiculous. It revolves around the disappearance of our main character's husband, who we don't know anything about beyond being a liar, a cheat and a scammer. There's no depth to his character; no narrative from him (even just one chapter from him would have sufficed to give him some kind of depth). And in the end we just get a brief description of what happened in a couple of paragraphs. Like what? His disappearance was meant to be the main plot focus and that's all the answers we get? And don't get me started on Adele. She had about as much depth as a puddle. She just drifted through the entire book without much of a fight beyond "Patrick is not getting away with blah blah blah".
The premise was good. The concept was intriguing. But the execution was so completely lacking I was left with the only positive thought being it was a nice quick read. Oh, that and the delicious twist at the end. Now that I really did like!
I would like to thank #DeaPoirier, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheMarriageCounselor in exchange for an honest review.
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