Pretty Little Wife
William Morrow
December 29, 2020
Hardcover
416
Purchased
Lila Ridgefield lives in an idyllic college town, but not everything is what it seems. Lila isn’t what she seems.A student vanished months ago. Now, Lila’s husband, Aaron, is also missing. At first these cases are treated as horrible coincidences until it’s discovered the student is really the third of three unexplained disappearances over the last few years. The police are desperate to find the connection, if there even is one. Little do they know they might be stumbling over only part of the truth….
With the small town in an uproar, everyone is worried about the whereabouts of their beloved high school teacher. Everyone except Lila, his wife. She’s definitely confused about her missing husband but only because she was the last person to see his body, and now it’s gone.
My review:
This was a fun one! I don't usually describe thrillers in that way, but I found this one to be that because of the circumstances surrounding dead high school teacher Aaron's death. You find out really early on that his wife had planned his death to look like a suicide, but then his body disappears! The reason for her decision to kill him, as well as her fear that somehow he must have survived, keep you on the edge of your seat just waiting for the next shoe to drop. As the investigation into his death ramps up, how does Lila handle what she knows while keeping up the facade of grieving widow? Also, is there any connection between Aaron's death and that of the cold cases of young girls gone missing? I flew through the pages wanting to put all the clues together while waiting for Lila to trip up and also be put in danger. Her character was drawn so well that I waffled back and forth the entire book on whether I liked her or not. I will say that I did figure out the gist of what was happening before the big reveal, but that didn't effect my overall enjoyment of this one. A totally satisfactory vigilante justice ending was the cherry on top!
An unputdownable thriller with a protagonist you don't come across very often, this one will keep you guessing until the end. Definitely a good whodunnit tale.
