The Couple in the Photo by Helen Cooper
Genre: Psychological thriller, Suspense
Read: 14th July 2023
Published: 22nd June 2023
★★★ 3.5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
They’re your best friends.
Lucy and her husband do everything with their closest friends Cora and Scott. They’ve even bought a beach house together to enjoy summers with their kids. They’re more than friends: they’re family.
They’re hiding something.
When a colleague passes around photographs from her honeymoon in the Maldives, Lucy is shocked to see Scott in one of the pictures, his arm around another woman.
The truth will change everything.
Then news breaks that the woman from the photograph has mysteriously vanished. Why was Scott there and what is he hiding?
As Lucy looks for answers, her whole life begins to unravel. If the lies start here, where do they end?
MY THOUGHTS:
The camera never lies...but someone is...
Let's just take a moment to admire that cover...and imagine being in the Maldives ourselves. That crystal clear water. The sunshine in the ocean blue sky. The luxury of such a destination.
That's just what Lucy was admiring in her colleague's photos upon returning from her honeymoon. Until she saw a familiar face...one that shouldn't be there. her husband's best friend Scott in the Maldives with his arm around a woman that wasn't his wife. Lucy doesn't know what to do with this information at first. After all, she and her husband Adam have been best friends with the Scott and his wife Cora for nearly two decades and their children are inseparable. They are practically family. In fact, they even co-own a holiday cottage in Norfolk that they are renovating together. Their lives are perfect.
But when Lucy sees this photo of Scott with another woman in the Maldives when he is supposed to be on a business trip in Tokyo, she begins to realise that maybe their lives aren't quite as perfect as she had thought. And that nothing is as it seems.
And then shortly afterwards, the woman from the photograph goes missing - last seen in the Maldives. And Lucy starts to question everything she thought she knew about those closest to her and wonders whether those that she loves and trusted the most may not be who she thought they were.
Beginning as a steady slow burn, the story soon picks up pace as Lucy realises that things aren't always what they seem. In the space of just a couple of weeks, the lives of each of the characters unravel by the day. It leaves you pondering just how well you know those closest to you.
My first read by Cooper and it was certainly interesting they way the story played out and how it all came together and then fell apart. I did predict the twists almost from the start but then as a seasoned mystery thriller fan, I tend to look where there aren't any clues and see what isn't there...and then piece it together. But in doing so, it doesn't ruin my enjoyment of a good story. And I did enjoy this thriller. In fact I read it in one sitting tonight in bed and am jotting out this review before I go to sleep.
Overall, a good read but nothing overly spectacular though still reasonably entertaining.
I would like to thank #HelenCooper, #Netgalley and #HodderAndStoughton for an ARC of #TheCoupleInThePhoto in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
She has taught English and Academic Writing in both Further and Higher Education and was Head of Learning Enhancement at the University of Birmingham. She has a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University and has been published in Writers’ Forum, Mslexia, the Lincolnshire Echo and Derbyshire Life. She was shortlisted for the Bath Short Story Prize in 2014 and came third in the Leicester Writes Short Story Prize in 2018. The Downstairs Neighbour is her first novel.
Helen has also co-authored two books on academic writing for university students, ‘Where’s Your Argument?’ and ‘Using Feedback to Boost Your Grades’, published by Macmillan International and written in collaboration with Michael Shoolbred.
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