Her Perfect Revenge by Lesley Sanderson
Genre: Psychological thriller, Suspense
Read: 13th October 2023
Published: 18th October 2023
★★★★ 4.5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
On the surface we were the perfect couple, but no one knows what we’ve been hiding…
Just six hours ago, Alex and I were married. It was a beautiful wedding by the sea, on the beach we’ve always loved. Our guests crowded outside our beach hut to raise a toast before our first midnight swim together as man and wife. And then, suddenly, he was gone, drowning in the water that meant so much to us.
But instead of being able to mourn in peace, to get to grips with my awful new reality, the police are here. It seems they don’t think Alex’s death was an accident. And I’m the main suspect.
I know I’m innocent, but I also know we both had secrets. And to my horror, it seems Alex’s were worth killing for. But who in our wedding party could have wanted him dead?
I thought I knew the man I married but I couldn’t have been more wrong. But then again, he didn’t know the real me either. I’ve been hiding from the truth for so long. And then I realise: what if it wasn’t Alex’s past that was coming back to find him. What if it’s mine? How far will someone go to expose my darkest secret?
A gripping, jaw-dropping page-turner with twists to die for. If you love Lisa Jewell, Daniel Hurst and Frieda McFadden, you’ll love Her Perfect Revenge.
MY THOUGHTS:
My husband is dead...and I'm the only suspect...
What a delightfully delicious psychological thriller Ms Sanderson has delivered us with. And the setting is superb. I love the beach, the water. So refreshing and invigorating. But this thriller is not quite what you expect it to be at first...
It's the perfect setting. A hotel whose doors open up onto a deck that give way to the sandy beach where a party is well underway celebrating Alex and Felicity's wedding. But this wedding comes with a difference. At the stroke of midnight, the bride and groom, and anyone who wishes to join them, are taking a midnight swim to mark this momententous occasion...and to exorcise a few demons for others.
As the guests shed their clothes, Alex and Felicity are the first to dive into the icy depths, the others following behind. But Alex, a born competitor, sees this swim as a challenge and swims further into the black water as Felicity, feeling the chill, promised herself only ten minutes before returning to shore. No one thinks anything of it...until a further ten, fifteen, twenty minutes go by and there's still no sign of Alex.
Frantic now, Felicity calls 999 and the police attend, along with the coastguard. And Alex still has not returned.
It isn't long before all the guests are questioned and a picture is formed. But then in follow-up interviews over the ensuing days, another picture is becoming clearer. Alex was engaged once before. And his fiance Beth swam in the same cove three years previously and was never seen again, fear drowned. Coincidence? But the police don't believe in coincidences and so they begin a thorough investigation questioning and re-questioning everyone again.
And it soon becomes clear that yet another picture was forming... But was it the truth? Or was it just what they were being lead to believe?
Even though I guessed one or two of the major plot twists almost from the start, it didn't ruin my enjoyment of this entertaining thriller. I read so many of them I tend to look where no one else does and expect what no one else does. The story unfolds in the past and present, both five years previous and up to Beth's drowning, to the wedding day and beyond. It does shift back and forth from time to time but only so as to drip feed us information at just the right time. And then we have a handful of chapters by an anonymous source. That one was a mystery but it wasn't too hard to narrow it down. The clues are all there for you to find.
The pace was steady throughout and the chapters short and snappy, which always keeps things moving along nicely. The ending was satisfactory with no loose ends though I would have liked maybe a final chapter from Alex as he took that last swim. I would have liked to peek inside his mind and what was going through it as he entered the water on that fateful night. Still, it the resolution was satisfactory and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A very different type of tale that was thoroughly entertaining.
I would like to thank #LesleySanderson, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #HerPerfectRevenge in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
'The Orchid Girls' was her first psychological thriller followed by 'The Woman at 46 Heath Street' in 2019, The Leaving Party (2020), The Birthday Weekend (2020), I Know You Lied (2021), Every Little Lie (2021), The Widow's Husband (2022) and The Mistress Next Door (2023).
Lesley spends her days writing in coffee shops in Kings Cross where she lives and works as a librarian. She loves the atmosphere and eclectic mix of people in the area. Lesley discovered Patricia Highsmith as a teenager and has been hooked on psychological thrillers ever since and is particularly interested in the psychology of female relationships.
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