Thursday 12 October 2017

Audiobook Review: THE SILENT WIFE by Kerry Fisher

Author: Kerry Fisher
Narrator:
Emma Spurgin-Hussey
Read:
September 2017
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟


Book Description:

Lara’s life looks perfect on the surface. Gorgeous doting husband Massimo, sweet little son Sandro and the perfect home. Lara knows something about Massimo. Something she can’t tell anyone else or everything Massimo has worked so hard for will be destroyed: his job, their reputation, their son. This secret is keeping Lara a prisoner in her marriage.

Maggie is married to Massimo’s brother Nico and lives with him and her troubled stepdaughter. She knows all of Nico’s darkest secrets – or so she thinks. The one day she discovers a letter in the attic which reveals a shocking secret about Nico’s first wife Caitlin. Will Maggie set the record straight or keep silent to protect those she loves?

For a family held together by lies, the truth will come at a devastating price. 

My musings:

I accidentally stumbled across The Silent Wife when browsing Amazon’s monthly deals, and ordered it on Audible for my upcoming holiday. It turned out to be one of those random purchases which worked in my favour, as the story and characters soon drew me in.

This is a slow burning drama, focusing on family and husband-wife relationships, and there were a few intriguing dynamics being explored here. Since I was the same age as Francesca when my mother died and my father married again, I could draw quite a few parallels between our lives, and it was interesting to get a different perspective. Fisher’s writing is lively and evocative, capturing my attention from the very first page. I especially liked Maggie’s tongue-in-cheek voice, which provided a few laugh-out-loud moments, but also some reflection points. Some of her observations about her step-family were hilarious as she doesn’t hold back! Lara, the other narrator, provided a good contrast and it was refreshing to see this character change as the story went along.

There are many different  themes being explored through the eyes of these two very different women: death, remarriage, domestic violence, and cultural differences are just a few issues that drove the storyline. The Farinelli family truly were a force to be reckoned with, and I found myself gnashing my teeth in frustration a few times. The story did flag a little bit for me in the later half and perhaps needed a bit more action or a twist to move it along. Luckily I was listening to that part of the book on a train and found it entertaining enough to provide a narrative to the landscape flashing by. Had I read it in print it may not have been enough to keep me interested right until the end as the resolution was fairly predictable for me. I’m not sure what happened to the promised “twist that will take your breath away” because I thought it all worked out a bit too neatly –something unexpected would have made it more memorable.


Summary:

All in all, The Silent Wife was a light, enjoyable book for me whilst providing some food for thought with the themes it explored – a perfect holiday read. 



No comments:

Post a Comment