Good Morning All,

Hope you’re all enjoying your Saturday morning and taking it easy for the weekend. I have a relatively easy going weekend on the cards though I am out for dinner with the family later today which I’m very much looking forward to. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to do that, so it will be lovely to get out of the house.

Book 📖

Serial killer you say? Count me in. I fell for the title of this book hook, line and sinker and knew I wanted to read it as soon as I saw it. Thank you to @AvonBooksUK and @Alice_Hunter_1 for this advanced audio copy of The Serial Killer’s Wife in return for an honest review. The Serial Killer’s Wife is due to be published on 27th May 2021 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Tom and Beth Hardcastle live a seemingly perfect life. They have a gorgeous cottage in a small country village, a beautiful daughter; Poppy and they both have successful careers. However not everything is as it appears on the surface. Tom is late home from work one evening and Beth is worried. Her concerns only grow when she thinks he has arrived home when it is instead the police at the door asking to speak with Tom.

Gossip spreads through the village. They’re all in disbelief that Tom could be guilty of what he is accused of but they’re also saying that surely Beth knew.

General Thoughts 🤔

Ok, so I will kick off by saying I was expecting a little more murder and killings than there actually was. When a book has serial killer in the title I kind of hope to have a bit of gore (I know, I’m a sicko) but that wasn’t the case.

However, that doesn’t mean I was completely disappointed. The book started at such a good pace so I was drawn into the story immediately. Once I was in, I couldn’t stop without finding out what happened. I had my suspicions (which turned out to be correct) but I did enjoy seeing it all unfold.

Characters 👬👫👭

I’m sure that I was supposed to empathise with Beth and feel for her struggle but in all honesty, at about the half way mark I was irritated by her. I found her to be quite dithery and a bit of a whinge.

Tom is obviously not a savoury character as per the title of the book, but I bought into his character the most. He seemed most realistic (for a serial killer) and I enjoyed reading the small sections of the book that were written from his perspective.

Writing Style ✍️

This is a debut novel from Alice Hunter and I think she’s done a good job. I think that there could be some improvements to the pacing of the book as the fast pace, high tension start to the story lost it’s momentum a little. However she added some interesting twists and curve balls that were well placed and timed.

The book is mostly written from Beth’s perspective (which is why I may have grown a little tiresome of her) but there are sections written from the point of view of some of the other characters. The book also jumps between past and current tense. So there was some complexity to the story in terms of following along and knowing what was happening to who and when.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

I did enjoy this book and as I mentioned, it started off on such a high, I had to carry on. However I wish that the excitement that was created at the beginning was built upon more. I’d still recommend this book and would read future Alice hunter books.

😍😍😍😩😩