ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton
The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton is published by Orion and available now in hardcover, eBook and audiobook. My thanks to the publishers for the proof copy.
You’re not who you say you are. But neither is she.
Olive Anderson has accepted that tonight she’ll be dining alone, without her husband. So when a beautiful stranger appears at Olive’s dinner table, telling the waiter she’s her wife, Olive is immediately unsettled.
But the stranger wants to talk, and isn’t this what Olive wants on this lonely winter night? To vent to a perfect stranger? She’s too ashamed to tell her real friends the truth – six months into the marriage they all warned her against, her life is a living nightmare.
Perhaps Olive should have asked the fake wife who she’s really married to. Perhaps she should have known this chance encounter had something to do with her secretive husband. Because there is a string of missing women connected to Mr Anderson, and by the morning, Olive will be the latest…
The Fake Wife is an unputdownable thriller that will shock and surprise you like the best television boxsets. If you enjoyed Netflix shows like Behind Her Eyes, The Stranger and Obsession you will love The Fake Wife.
Olive Anderson is away for the evening, eating alone in a hotel restaurant. When she returns to her table after a breather she finds another woman sitting there. At first Olive is annoyed but then when the woman tells the waiter she is Olive’s wife she’s more surprised than anything. What’s going on?
Well, that’s the question I had all the way through The Fake Wife. What on earth is going on? I mean that in the best possible way as Sharon Bolton is the mistress of twisty and complex storylines. I had to keep my wits about me, and to be totally honest I did sometimes lose track of what was happening, but I do love a plot that makes me think and join the dots up like this one did.
When Olive goes missing after leaving the hotel with the fake wife, Constable Garry Mizon and DS Lexy Thomas investigate the disappearance. Garry is a bit of a maverick and maybe a little out of step with the other officers and I loved him. Whilst not officially the main character, he was definitely the star of the show for me and I’d love to see him pop up in another book. His relationship with Lexy is written brilliantly and their scenes were my favourite of all.
The Fake Wife is an excellent, pacy thriller. It didn’t feel run of the mill at all and the plot is intricate and exciting. I always enjoy Bolton’s books and this one is no exception.
Sharon (formerly S J) Bolton grew up in a cotton-mill town in Lancashire and had an eclectic early career in marketing and public relations. She gave it up in 2000 to become a mother and a writer.
Her first novel, Sacrifice, was voted Best New Read by Amazon.uk, whilst her second, Awakening, won the 2010 Mary Higgins Clark Award (part of the prestigious Edgars) in the US. She has been shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger, the CWA Silver Dagger, the Theakston’s Prize for Best Thriller, the International Thriller Writers’ Best First Novel award, the Prix Du Polar in France and the Martin Beck award in Sweden.
