Review: My Husband's Wife

My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a hard review to write because my thoughts are mixed. I kind of wish I'd never picked this book up! The prologue pulled me right in. A women (at least I thought it was a women) lies dying on the floor and we are inside her head with her final thoughts. Immediately I wanted to know who she is, who killed her, and why!

The book alternates between the present and the recent past, filling in the background with the events leading to the current situation. The problem is that getting there was kind of boring. I wanted to get through it, because I wanted to know what happened, but I wasn't really enjoying getting there very much.

I'm not sure why this was; possibly a combination of facts. There was too much detail at times, and the book was a little too long. I think the story could have been told in fewer words. But another problem was that I don't think there was one likable character in the group, at least among the main characters. There were some auxiliary characters that I didn't dislike, but because they were bit players, they weren't well developed. It's possible that had I gotten to know them better, I wouldn't have liked them either.

The result of this is that, while I really wanted to know what happened, and who lay dying on the floor, it didn't really matter to me who it was, because whoever it was, was getting what he or she deserved! My only regret is that the others weren't also dying on the floor!

As much as I didn't appreciate this book as a solitary read, I think it would be an excellent book club selection. There is so much to discuss; poor decisions by the characters, motivations, justice; so much to discuss here. Often it is the discussion that makes a book worthwhile, and that is certainly true in this case!

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