This has been a slow month so far but I think my concentration is back and I’m enjoying reading again. I bought this book last week in a phenomenal bookstore that was located inside of a church. The number of English books in one place is extraordinary, haven’t found a bookstore with that number of English books closer to home. But enough of that; the book that brought me out of my reading funk is none other then ‘My husband’s wife’ by Alice Feeney.

If you haven’t already read this book, I strongly suggest that you put the book you’re reading on hold and pick this one up. This is a book you can absolutely read in one sitting if you have a couple of spare hours.

Olivia Bird is a recluse; she doesn’t like people but is good in putting up a mask to fit in social settings. Olivia has just had a lifechanging diagnosis, she’s dying and doesn’t have much time left. On the same day as being diagnosed someone knocks at her door, a stranger saying he’s a lawyer and Olivia actually inherited a house in Hope Falls called Spyglass. When Olivia takes the train to Hope Falls to look at the place and see if anything might trigger a memory, she finds an envelope; fancy black with gold lettering of a company called Thanatos; something about getting your death date.

She’s skeptical of course I mean, who can predict when you’re going to die? Nobody, certainly not a company where you don’t have to pay a penny for. But when Olivia has done all the things, she has to do in order to get hers, a day later an envelope arrives and in that envelope; her death date. Seeing how little time she has left she decides she wants to moves to the place where it all began, Hope Falls. With her house already sold off, she choses to sleep at an Inn. She just has to see and talk to her, even if it might be her last time.

Tonight her art will be on display in the gallery in town; to get the nervous energy out of her system she decides to go for a run but when she gets back and her key doesn’t fit in the door anymore, she gets agitated. When another woman opens the door claiming to be her, she demands to speak to her husband but he also claims not to know this woman and to go away before calling the police. Surely, he’s mistaken, right? The woman really looks like her but an older version, is her husband in distress?

When all becomes clear that the husband is doing this willingly and really seems to not know her, she hesitates. I am Eden Fox, right? Only one person that can verify it now that they’ve moves house a couple of weeks ago, their daughter Gabrielle that has lived in a care facility called The Mansion. She hasn’t spoken in 10 years, since she had her accident so, she’s not getting her hopes up. When she arrives and her daughter speaks for the first time in 10(!!) years, she can’t believe her ears. Has she gone mad? Gabrielle whispers ‘You. Are. Not. My. Mother.’

The day after Olivia Bird introduces herself to her new colleague Carter, with who she slept with when she first arrived in Hope Falls things get awkward. DCI Bird it is now, bet you didn’t expect that now did you? When a call comes in about Eden Fox gone missing, they start their investigation, taking them all over the place. ‘It’s almost always the husband’ one says. But is it? A couple of days later they find a body but DNA comes back inconclusive so, they don’t know if the body is Eden or not. Eden isn’t at the house and the husband is being weird…

But when the truth comes out, all will be revealed in the end. The ending is always some kind of masterpiece. Alice really is the queen of mindf*cks.

I’m giving this book a ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 star rating.