2022 Book Review #26: The Replacement Wife

 

This author is new to me and when I spied this novel on our "new books" shelf at the town library, the cover art is what first drew my eye.  Then I read the jacket cover and wow.....I just had to read this thriller/mystery.  It's a good one and very fast-paced which I like.  Also there's not a lot of swearing which I also liked nor are there s*x scenes depicted.

STORY SUMMARY

Elisa Wright is married to Harris Wright and they have a 7 year old energetic son named Nathan.  They live in a suburb of Philadelphia and Harris is a well-respected veterinarian. Their town is nice and quiet which fits with Elisa's lifestyle of a nice, quiet mom and wife. 

However, her brother-in-law, Josh (Harris' younger brother) is someone that Elisa often questions.  She is convinced that he is a murderer....not just of his first wife...but of his second wife as well!  And now....his fiancee Abby, one of Elisa's best friends, has disappeared without a trace! Shortly after her disappearance, Josh has a new girlfriend!  Elisa is afraid for this new girl, Rachel. And Elisa desperately wants to know what in the world happened to Abby.  

Elisa is also dealing with her own issues:  she was at the scene of a hospital shooting and suffered a gunshot wound to her arm. She is still dealing with the PTSD of that and has been in therapy regarding this tragedy. However, she has begun investigating the case of Abby.....she finds Abby's laptop that's filled with incriminating information and learns about other women in Josh's life. She befriends Rachel and starts to question things that she thinks are true but she's wondering if her PTSD is pushing her over the edge and wonders if Josh is actually innocent!

She begins to have to fight off panic attacks and suddenly begins to have periods of nausea, dizziness and dangerously low  blood pressure. Is she having a breakdown or is someone gaslighting her??  The race is on  to figure out the truth before another woman disappears.....or worse......IS there a killer in the family??

MY THOUGHTS

Parts of this book were very unbelievable but that's just the excitement of fiction, isn't it? I loved that this book kept me up reading late into the night and that it wasn't scary or creepy...just a really well written plot that includes some mystery, thriller-type scenes, and episodes of gaslighting which is always intriguing to me. 

The characters are well developed and the ending is quite a surprise!  I honestly didn't see that coming.......

I love that the author describes Harris and Elisa's marriage as one that people could relate to...it's not a sugary sappy romance but it's not super dysfunctional either. It's about the only thing that's close to reality in the plot. 

As I was reading it, I couldn't help but wonder if this might be made into a movie someday....it would make a great film as long as Hollywood stuck to the plot and how it's developed. 

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (for some mature content relating to pills). 

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.