Your Husband's Fault by Kerry Wilkinson
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 24th May 2025
Published: 12th May 2025
★★★★ 3.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
A girl went missing. Was it your husband’s fault?
Sarah is so happy to have moved from the city to her husband’s small hometown. James was strangely reluctant at first – but she convinced him their little cottage is the perfect place to settle down. The perfect place to give their six-year-old son a new life.
But then a woman at the school gates asks Sarah if she is really married to ‘that man’. ‘Which man?’ Sarah asks. The woman replies…
‘Don’t you know what your husband did?’
Because Sarah and James moving back has caused old wounds to surface. James’ best friend, Lucy, went missing 20 years ago. Everyone thinks he was responsible.
Sarah is reeling. Why did James never tell her about Lucy? What really happened to the missing girl?
And can Sarah ever trust the man she married again?
An utterly addictive psychological thriller that will keep you up reading late into the night. Perfect for fans of Shari Lapena, Lisa Jewell and T.M. Logan.
MY THOUGHTS:
A girl went missing...is it your husband's fault...?
A small town, small minded gossip and plenty of secrets is what fills this tale of tangled webs. Like the main character, it's hard to know who the reader can trust with all the allegations and stories flying about. But what exactly is going on?
This one is a bit of a slow burn and takes a while to ramp up a bit but my interest held enough to keep me turning that pages, at least. I was certainly left guessing that's for sure and the visit to Carnington in this tale of woe was tinged with a bit of mystery that is enough to keep the reader ploughing on. The pace is slow to steady so don't expect any fast paced adrenaline-fuelled thrill rides here. It's more a walking pace through the village.
We meet Sarah who has recently moved to the village from the fast paced London with her husband James and young son Oliver. But with James currently working in New York, the move was left to Sarah and her father, whilst introductions at the school gate were made in his absence. It's there, after dropping Oliver off one day, that Sarah meets Pamela who is full of questions of the new mum in their midst. But the moment Sarah discloses her husband grew up there and mentions his name, Pamela's face pales.
"I just don't understand how you can be married to that man," she says. "Don't you know what your husband did?"
Sarah is speechless and at a loss as to what to say. What is she talking about? What is he supposed to have done? But before she could elicit any kind of answer, Pamela moves away to the huddle of other mums christened "the coven". Their whispers and sidelong glances her way spoke volumes. Sarah hurries home and wishes James was there for her to question. This is not something she could drop via a text or even FaceTime. No, it has to be in person. James will be home in two days at the most; she'll ask him then. But then so much happens in between. Their garden wall is vandalised, threats are made and Sarah is sure everyone is whispering about her and what her husband is supposed to have done.
Since no one is forthcoming with answers, she decides to dig for them herself. Especially after a visit by the man who claimed her husband killed his daughter over thirty years before. She refused to believe it. She knew her husband; they'd been together twelves years - she'd know. Wouldn't she? But at least now she had a name and a few pieces of information to do some digging herself.
But the more she uncovers, the more she wonders how much she really knows her husband? And when James returns from New York, things only serve to get weirder. There's a murder and a fire and a whole host of secrets that lay buried in midst of Carnington that are just bubbling beneath the surface. And all eyes and fingers are pointing to James.
There was a lot to unpack in this one but at the end it still ended up a ball of tangled mess. I didn't like the ending as it was too open-ended and not clear-cut. What are we supposed to think? There were also a few questions that were left unanswered and to me that is an unsatisfactory end. However, it was an interesting tale that had the potential to be better but it was still a good read that I largely enjoyed.
It is a slow burn, so don't expect the pace to be anything but a walking pace till it starts to get a little more interesting. The main mystery in the story was very easily solved and I even I had that pegged early on. But the biggest twist was a good one though I felt it could have packed a bit more of a punch that it did.
Overall, not an excellent read but a good solid one that keeps the reader engaged and interested throughout. The ending and the pace throughout does let it down a little.
I would like to thank #KerryWilkinson, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #YourHusbandsFault in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Kerry Wilkinson has had No.1 crime bestsellers in the UK, Australia, Canada, South Africa and Singapore. He has also written two top-20 thrillers in the United States. His book, Ten Birthdays, won the RNA award for Young Adult Novel of the Year in 2018 and Close To You won the International Thriller Award for best ebook in 2020.
As well as his million-selling Jessica Daniel series, Kerry has written the Silver Blackthorn trilogy - a fantasy-adventure serial for young adults - a second crime series featuring private investigator Andrew Hunter, plus numerous standalone novels. He has been published around the world in more than a dozen languages.
Originally from the county of Somerset, Kerry spent way too long living in the north of England, picking up words like 'barm' and 'ginnel'.
When he's short of ideas, he rides his bike, hikes up something, or bakes cakes. When he's not, he writes it all down.
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