Written by Tom Carrao
As so much of this riveting thriller by author Mary Kubica hinges on a series of gargantuan, startling conclusive twists, it is incumbent upon a reviewer to honour the work by being as sensitive as possible in plot description and detail. Once a reader has processed the full impact of the closing chapters, reflection upon the turn of events reveals just how clever Kubica has been in structuring a credible psychological and practical framework for all preceding action and behaviour. She manages to undermine all expectation, destabilising the reader with a violently satisfying shift of grounding.
“There’s something off about the house”. This is the opening observance of central character Sadie in regards to her new home in a tiny coastal town in Maine. She and her family (husband Will and sons Otto and Tate) have relocated from Chicago quite suddenly, fleeing a collective mess of infidelity, delinquency, and work misconduct. A family in crisis, their turmoil is a perfect mirror of Sadie’s initial thought-the same sensibility may be applied to this troubled clan. Not quite ever finding her footing in the tiny island hamlet, feeling exiled and cut off from a mainland, Sadie must also contend with vaguely hostile neighbours, combative colleagues at her doctoral practice and, especially, the near-homicidal moodiness of Will’s orphan niece Imogen. Inherited along with the house, granted to Will following the suicide of his sister (a circumstance mired in more than a little mystery), Imogen takes a quick, antagonistic dislike to Sadie, who is alarmed that the damaged girl (as she discovered the grisly aftermath) may know more about her mother’s death than she claims.
Narrated by a trio of seemingly disparate female voices in interspersing chapters, the constant is anxiety, panic and determined anger. In addition to Sadie and her ongoing discomfort in her new community, further unmoored by the murder of her next-door neighbour almost synchronous with her family’s arrival, there is Camille, Will’s adulterous partner, who has apparently followed him to Maine expecting to carry on the affair, and poor Mouse, victimised by her evil stepmother. Kubica plays an exquisite long game, eventually unifying the characters in ways which conflict with the certainties of which a reader has convinced the self. One would determine that all three narratives are taking place simultaneously, but Kubica may have cunning plans to impair assumptions.
In many ways, Sadie is a familiar trope of character in suspense novels: convinced of conspiracies and targeted attacks against her, she appears increasingly hysterical to loved ones and suspicious to authority figures, to such a degree that she begins to doubt herself and her reliability. She is confused by witness statements of her presence at places she has no recollection of being. There are periods of time for which she can’t account. The local police detain her with accusatory indulgence. The suggestion that Will may have been intimately close with the murdered neighbour bristly scratches open still-mending wounds. In reaction to this feeling of loss of control, she embarks on her own investigation, to reach the inscrutable heart of the misfortune. She will uncover quite a lot more than she could ever imagine.
Unequivocally, no one is innocent in this deliciously disreputable tale, and certainly no one is what he or she may initially seem. It is to Kubica’s great credit that by the end sympathies and antipathies have shifted, a tremendous empathy has been elicited at certain tragic personal experiences, and revelations slam into place with alarming and shocking breathlessness, expertly delivered.
The less said the better for maximum enjoyment. Enjoy the wild ride.
The Other Mrs. is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Propulsive and addictive, The Other Mrs. is the twisty new psychological thriller from Mary Kubica, the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl
She tried to run, but she can’t escape the other Mrs….
Sadie and Will Foust have only just moved their family from bustling Chicago to small-town Maine when their neighbor Morgan Baines is found dead in her home. The murder rocks their tiny coastal island, but no one is more shaken than Sadie.
But it’s not just Morgan’s death that has Sadie on edge. And as the eyes of suspicion turn toward the new family in town, Sadie is drawn deeper into the mystery of what really happened that dark and deadly night. But Sadie must be careful, for the more she discovers about Mrs. Baines, the more she begins to realize just how much she has to lose if the truth ever comes to light.
