Review: 'The Serial Killer's Wife' by Alice Hunter
Pub. Date: 5/27/2021
Publisher: Avon Books UK
They’re saying he’s a monster. And they’re saying she knew.
Beth and Tom Hardcastle are the envy of their neighbourhood – they have the perfect marriage, the perfect house, the perfect family.
When the police knock on their door one evening, Beth panics. Tom should be back from work by now – what if he’s crashed his car? She fears the worst.
But the worst is beyond imagining.
As the interrogation begins, Beth will find herself questioning everything she believed about her husband.
They’re husband and wife – till death do them part…
The thought of marriage for life is honestly quite terrifying. (Perhaps that statement betrays my occasional trust/attachment issues.) A whole life, with one person, and you're just going to have to trust them about who they are and what they say they want. (Perhaps that statement betrays the fact I read a lot of domestic thrillers!) Domestic thrillers have become all the rage and I imagine that being stuck indoors with their families for the last year and a half will give thriller writers a whole ne plethora of things to write about. At the core is the fear that things are never as good as they seem, that the happy marriage is a sham and everyone is hiding something from someone. That although the love may be real, it is not enough. In The Serial Killer's Wife this idea of what we do for love, are willing to do, are capable of doing to others in the name of love, permeates almost all the characters' actions. And what stronger motivator could there be?
Beth has the perfect life. After two years of settling into their new village, she has an adorable daughter, a great husband, and a booming pottery cafe. But cracks start to show when Tom is taken in for questioning and then arrested for the potential murder of an ex-girlfriend, Katie. Now Beth has to figure out what to do. Stick with her husband and become a pariah in the village? Lean on recently widowed Adam and try to take care of her daughter as best she can? Confide in the police, or in sudden new best friend Julia? Or keep her cards close to her chest and wait it all out? Although we spend the majority of the book with Beth, we also get glimpses into the thoughts of Katie, Tom and an unknown woman. It serves to ramp up the tension and make us question what we thought had already been established.
This is Alice Hunter's debut novel and it's a confident starter. Although at times Beth's friends and neighbours in the village are a little flat, they do what they're supposed to. Beth is a complex main character, one who at times seems very selfish yet is utterly devoted to her daughter. Her own sad past is hinted at and this explains some of the hard choices she makes. At the end of The Serial Killer's Wife it will be up to the reader to decide whether she made the right ones or not. The pace of the book definitely slows down a little in the middle section of the book, as if we're taking a step back and slowly taking in all the scattered puzzle pieces one by one. This can be a bit of a damper for some readers who had enjoyed the fast pace at the beginning, but towards the end the twists do keep coming and the final chapters will be a hoot, even if they might not be entirely a surprise. I will definitely be keeping an eye on future books by Alice Hunter!
I give this book...
The Serial Killer's Wife was an engaging read and a great debut by Alice Hunter. You will question every character, wonder at everyone's motives, and in the end, you might realize that no one can be entirely trusted.
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