Audiobook, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing @smariedowning @DavidPittu @PRHAudio

Jonetta | Blue Mood Café


the setup…

The narrator and his wife Millicent have been married for fifteen years and the parents of two teenaged children, Jenna and Rory. They live in an affluent neighborhood; she’s a successful realtor and he’s a tennis pro. To their friends and outsiders, they appear to be a normal suburban family. But he and Millicent are anything but. You see, these two have discovered a rather unconventional way to add excitement to their romance and it involves murder.

the heart of the story…

Told from the husband’s point of view, it all started with what seemed to be a desperate act to save their family. That was the first time. Even the second time maybe. But he and Millicent discover they each had a bit of bloodlust. He was the hunter, disguising himself as Tobias, a deaf man, to scope out potential victims, and she was the closer, the one who actually handled the victims. All throughout, I was just trying to figure out how they got here. Millicent was clearly the one in charge of the family and we soon learn that she’s the leader in their side adventures. Sounds crazy, yes, but he tells this story so normally, transitioning from past to present to provide context and background. Things start going sideways when the police find one of the bodies, the media latches on and their children get affected in an indirect way. I had to keep reminding myself that he wasn’t sympathetic, not a good guy because he kept getting under my skin in his attempt to protect his children.

the narration…

I’m not sure they could have found anyone more perfect to narrate this story. He could make Ted Bundy sound rational as he simultaneously made this character come across as someone you wanted to save and fear at the same time. What an outstanding performance!

the bottom line…

This story was crazy in how it made a family’s diabolical plans and actions feel almost normal. When things started to get out of hand, I began sensing that I might not know all the truths. Indeed there were several twists that shifted the narrative and I found myself in the weird position of rooting for the husband…really? You just have to read this crazy sauce to understand that and I promise you will. I’m not even sure I liked that ending but I think I did? This was one unpredictable and entertaining reading ride, like being behind the controls of a runaway train that, from the outside, seemed like all was well. I’m loving this author.

Book Info

  • Release Date: March 26, 2019
  • Narrator: David Pittu
  • Audio Length: 10 hours, 13 minutes
  • Publisher: Penguin Audio

 

 

Goodreads | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm

 

(Thanks to Penguin Random House Audio for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)

Published by Jonetta | Blue Mood Café

27 thoughts on “My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing @smariedowning @DavidPittu @PRHAudio”

  2. Pingback: 2022 Audiobook Challenge @kimbacaffeinate @twimom227 #2022AudiobookChallenge – Blue Mood Café
  3. Pingback: 2022 Beat the Backlist Challenge – Blue Mood Café
  12. Pingback: 2022 Audiobook Challenge Update – Blue Mood Café
  13. Pingback: 2022 Beat the Backlist Challenge Update – Blue Mood Café
  14. Pingback: Best of 2022 – Top 12 Books – Blue Mood Café

Comment anyone?

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s