Title: Dear Wife by Kimberly Belle
Publisher: Park Row
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense, Mystery
Length: 336 pages
Book Rating: B+
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley
Summary:
From the bestselling author of The Marriage Lie and Three Days Missing comes a riveting new novel of suspense about a woman who, in a fight for survival, must decide just how far she’ll go to escape the person she once loved
Beth Murphy is on the run…
For nearly a year, Beth has been planning for this day. A day some people might call any other Wednesday, but Beth prefers to see it as her new beginning—one with a new look, new name and new city. Beth has given her plan significant thought, because one small slip and her violent husband will find her.
Sabine Hardison is missing…
A couple hundred miles away, Jeffrey returns home from a work trip to find his wife, Sabine, is missing. Wherever she is, she’s taken almost nothing with her. Her abandoned car is the only evidence the police have, and all signs point to foul play.
As the police search for leads, the case becomes more and more convoluted. Sabine’s carefully laid plans for her future indicate trouble at home, and a husband who would be better off with her gone. The detective on the case will stop at nothing to find out what happened and bring this missing woman home. Where is Sabine? And who is Beth? The only thing that’s certain is that someone is lying and the truth won’t stay buried for long.
Review:
Dear Wife by Kimberly Belle is a gripping, suspense-laden mystery.
Beth Murphy’s careful planning has finally come to fruition and she is on her way to a new life. After enduring unimaginable violence and emotional abuse from her husband for years, she is doing everything she can to cover her tracks. Having fully decided where she is going to start over, Beth begins a circuitous route to her destination. However, just as things are falling into place, she learns a woman from her hometown has gone missing. Frantic with worry and with her husband’s malevolent words continuing to whisper through her mind, Beth wonders if she will ever be safe.
Back in Pine Bluff, Jeffrey Hardison returns from a business trip to an empty house. At first believing his wife Sabine, an enormously successful Realtor, is working late, he is not alarmed until the following morning. Jeffrey and his sister-in-law Ingrid report Sabine’s unexplained and troubling disappearance to local police. Fully aware the husband is always a suspect, Jeffrey does everything he can to divert suspicion away from himself. After poking around Sabine’s computer, Jeffery makes an absolutely shocking discovery.
Detective Marcus Durand is assigned to Sabine’s case and he is soon obsessed with the locating her. He is always one step ahead of Jeffrey and he delights in stunning his chief suspect with the information he has unearthed. With the case receiving intense media scrutiny, Marcus is under immense pressure to find Sabine and he will go to any lengths to find the missing woman.
Unfolding from Beth’s, Marcus’s, and Jeffrey’s points of view, Dear Wife is a tension-filled mystery that is multi-layered and engrossing. The storyline is tautly written and shines a much needed light on how difficult it to escape from an abusive relationship. Beth’s story arc is absolutely heartbreaking and readers experience her terror and doubts as she desperately fights to escape her abuser. Jeffrey is a reprehensible husband but does he have anything to do with Sabine’s disappearance? Marcus is an experienced investigator but cracks begin to show as he takes extreme measures to locate the missing woman. With subtle clues, unanticipated turns and startling revelations, Kimberly Belle masterfully brings this stunning mystery to a dramatic, pulse-pounding conclusion. An absolutely brilliant novel that I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend to fans of the genre.
