She Treads Softly: My Husband's Lies

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

My Husband's Lies

My Husband's Lies by Liz Lawler
11/20/23; 342 pages
Bookouture

My Husband's Lies by Liz Lawler is a recommended thriller.

Kate is a doctor, her husband Mark is an airline pilot, and they have a young son, Jacob. Mark is being questioned by the police in connection with the murder of a young woman in Barcelona and Kate is unsure she can really trust him. Then Mark is hit by a car, hospitalized, and in a medically induced coma while the police plan to arrest him. When Mark's friend, Robert, shows up with another co-worker, Olivia, they assure Kate they are there to help and support her as she tries to prove her husband's innocence while she also questions if she can trust him.

My Husband's Lies is a fast-paced thriller full of flawed people. The narrative is mainly told through Kate's point-of-view, whose judgement is questionable at times. While the plot starts out intriguing, it becomes formulaic. There is also a point where a huge suspension of disbelief is required for the plot to even continue. What mother would trust some random co-worker of her husband, one she has never met, to stay in her home and take care of her child? Uh, no one I have ever known would even consider this. Once this leap is taken, the plot becomes very predictable. Interesting, but not utterly gripping or jaw dropping.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Bookouture via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.