She Treads Softly: The Husband's Secret

Tuesday, May 5, 2026

The Husband's Secret

The Husband's Secret Book Cover

The Husband's Secret by Debra Webb
5/26/26; 224 pages
Harlequin Intrigue
Colby Agency: The Next Generation , #5

The Husband's Secret by Debra Webb is a highly recommended romantic suspense novel, with a focus on the suspense. This is the 5th book in the Colby Agency: The Next Generation series but it can easily be read as a standalone.

Author Brenda Devers is still mourning her husband Scott's death three weeks earlier when she sees him at the airport in LA, but he quickly moves away and disappears. The two had been separated for a year before his death, but the idea he is still alive shakes her up. Once she gets home to her daughter, four year-old Janie, she is ready to unpack and relax, but then the police are there, somehow blaming her for Scott's business shenanigans. Following this her home is broken into overnight and an ominous message is left painted on her garage door, "Where is it?"

New neighbor Ben Clark is helpful and reveals that he is a private investigator with the Colby Agency who Scott hired to keep Brenda and Janie safe. Ben is astute and insightful while helping Brenda answer questions from the police and now the FBI. Brenda decides to send Janie with her nanny to keep her safe. Then she and Ben begin to look into Scott's business dealings while looking for the mysterious hidden clue that someone is desperate to murder someone to get.

The plot develops quickly with a very fast pace and plenty of intrigue and suspense as Brenda and Ben look for clues and follow-up on their discoveries. Personally, I skimmed over the romance portion of the plot as, considering the situation Brenda is in, it seems unrealistic, but the mystery/suspense is enjoyable and well-written, which I expect in a novel by Debra Webb. It becomes clear that Brenda can't trust the police or FBI as it appears something more is going on behind the scenes. The danger and tension increases with each chapter, along with the twists.

The Husband's Secret is a great choice for anyone looking for an enjoyable, short, fast-paced romantic suspense novel. Thanks to Harlequin Intrigue for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

No comments:

Post a Comment

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.