This month’s fable Thriller book club book is called ‘The housewife’ by Natalie Barelli, when the book came out, I didn’t really want to read it because if you’ve read a housewife thriller or trad wife thriller, the book isn’t that surprising but since it is a book club book, I did pick it up and it didn’t really disappoint either BUT I won’t be picking up a book with this theme anytime soon.

Jodie is the wife of famous psychologist Roy Davies and coming from nothing to being a wife that wants for nothing is quite the switch. There is some clashing between the housekeeper called Marie and Jodie because the things that make Jodie happy is cooking and cleaning which is Marie’s job but she can’t seem to let that part go. Being an excellent cook, she whips up the 5-star dishes as if it’s nothing and takes her time cleaning the place with such vigor that there is no speck of dust around, leaving Marie to ‘clean’ after so she’s doing something.

Jodie has a hidden agenda within this marriage though. You see, she’s Roy’s second wife; his first wife Deb was found dead at the bottom of the stairs and was ruled a suicide but something doesn’t sit right. It becomes clear rather quickly that Jodie is a psychopath – with an unhealthy number of questions about Roy’s late wife that everybody seemed to adore and has been described as the most optimistic and social person they knew.

When Jodie found out Roy had an affair during his marriage to Deb and finds out he has an appointment with divorce lawyers within a week she adamant to find out what really happened with her sister AKA first wife Deb because she doesn’t believe one bit that she could have shot herself in the face with a rifle but she has looked everywhere in the house, everywhere except in Roy’s home office which he keeps locked – she knows he keeps patient folders in a save in there which might mean there could be something in there on her sister.

What you don’t know is, Jodie was once Joanne and has served a 5-year sentence for vehicular manslaughter and had a very troubled upbringing where her father didn’t really acknowledge her and her mother hated her guts. Whenever she did something wrong in her mother’s eyes and that was almost everyday because she existed, a beating with an old leather belt wasn’t unheard of or being locked up in the cellar for the night with no light whatsoever. The only person that loved her and kept her company was her sister Deborah – who always looked out for her. So, Jodie made it her mission to find out what really happened and make sure the person responsible pays for what he / she did.

I did like the book but Jodie’s behavior got on my nerves the further I got in the story and one plot twist I did see coming, it wasn’t the main one but still.

I’m giving this book 3.5 stars