Still the master of the double-cross, and the double double-cross, Michele Campbell’s The Wife Who Knew Too Much is a perfect, twisty, fun, summertime thriller that you will not be able to put down once you’ve picked it up. The clever story-telling and fascinating characters that Campbell brings to all of her novels are certainly present here as she whisks us away to the ultra-rich, high society lifestyle of the Hamptons.
The story opens with a diary entry written by Nina Levitt at the beginning of her own Fourth of July party. Nina is an incredibly wealthy businesswoman and philanthropist with a much younger husband, Connor, who she clearly has lost faith in. Nina seems to have some kind of knowledge or premonition (we don’t know which yet) that she will meet an untimely death at the hands of her husband. She turns out to be correct. (That’s not a spoiler, I promise – it happens in the first five pages.)
We then meet Tabitha, a hard-working waitress in New Hampshire who is almost literally a world away from the Southampton lifestyle of Nina and Connor. But Tabitha knew Connor (and even had a summer romance with him) ten years earlier. He broke her heart back then, but when he shows up out of the blue, their lives are almost instantly intertwined, just like when they were teenagers. It’s been ten years, who is Connor now? Where has he been and who did he become in those intervening years?
Of course, relationships always get complicated, and Nina’s untimely death does nothing to make things less complicated! Was it suicide, or was it murder? If it was murder, who was responsible… and why? Is there a chance that Tabitha and Connor will get to live out the fairytale-like fantasy she imagined all those years ago?
It doesn’t take long for Tabitha to understand that the glitzy, wealthy, glamorous life she has been thrust into has a dark side, and that she is poorly prepared for dealing with everything that is about to come her way.
Campbell keeps the suspense level high, then lets you sit back and relax before she throws an entirely new twist at you. That is exactly what make The Wife Who Knew Too Much so very hard to put down. She has included mesmerising (though, of course, not always likeable) characters and successfully seduces the reader into this beautifully fancy, but incredibly dangerous, world right along with the characters.
A fantastic poolside or at-the-beach read, but just as perfect curled up in a chair inside, escaping from the summer heat, The Wife Who Knew Too Much will have your fingers busy turning page, after page, after page.
The Wife Who Knew Too Much is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
From Michele Campbell, the bestselling author of It’s Always the Husband comes a new blockbuster thriller in The Wife Who Knew Too Much.
Tabitha Girard had her heart broken years ago by Connor Ford. He was preppy and handsome. She was a pool girl at his country club. Their affair should have been a summer fling. But it meant everything to Tabitha.
Years later, Connor comes back into Tabitha’s life—older, richer, and desperately unhappy. He married for money, a wealthy, neurotic, controlling woman whom he never loved. He has always loved Tabitha.
When Connor’s wife Nina takes her own life, he’s free. He can finally be with Tabitha. Nina’s home, Windswept, can be theirs. It seems to be a perfect ending to a fairy tale romance that began so many years ago. But then, Tabitha finds a diary. “I’m writing this to raise an alarm in the event of my untimely death,” it begins. “If I die unexpectedly, it was foul play, and Connor was behind it. Connor—and her.”
Who is Connor Ford? Why did he marry Nina? Is Tabitha his true love, or a convenient affair? As the police investigate Nina’s death, is she a convenient suspect?
As Tabitha is drawn deeper into the dark glamour of a life she is ill-prepared for, it becomes clear to her that what a wife knows can kill her.
