The Book:
The Dead Husband by Carter Wilson
Published May 4th 2021 by Poisoned Pen Press
Date read: May 31, 2021
The Characters:
Rose, her son Max
Her father Logan and sister Cora
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
Twenty years ago an unspeakable tragedy rocked Rose Yates’s small, affluent hometown… and only Rose and her family know the truth about what happened.
Haunted by guilt, Rose escaped into a new life. Now she seems to have it all: a marriage, a son, a career. And then her husband is found dead.
As far as Detective Colin Pearson is concerned, Rose is guilty. Her marriage wasn’t as happy as she’d led everyone to believe, and worse, she’s connected to a twenty-year-old cold case. She can play the part of the victim, but he won’t let her or her family escape justice this time around.
Grieving her husband and struggling to make ends meet, Rose returns home, hoping to finally confront her domineering father and unstable sister. But memories of a horrific crime echo through the house, and Rose soon learns that she can’t trust anyone, especially not the people closest to her.
The Twist:
Cora was a psychopath and had killed multiple animals as well as the high school boy. Logan knew and covered it up, and made Rose stay quiet as well.
The Ending:
Max had read his mom’s books and was the one who killed his father. The father had been beating Rose and possibly Max as well. Max confessed to Rose and Colin. Rose then confessed to Colin about what Cora did when they were teens. Colin gave her a 20-minute head start to use her father’s escape plan and disappear.
The Review:
I’m trying to squeeze in a few more books before the end of May, and I actually wrote this review on time! I also completely thought this one would come out tomorrow, but I just looked and it came out on May 4th. Whoops. I only just received this finished copy, though!
I’m on the fence about this book. I need to put a huge trigger warning right up front that there is a LOT of animal harm in this one, and it’s not glossed over. There were multiple pages describing the scene. If there is anything that turns me off to a story, it’s people hurting animals. I understand this was used to show how the character is a psychopath, but the point still could have been made without the animal killing. Or even a quick mention of it would have been fine, without describing it in detail.
Other than that, I enjoyed the story. I guessed the twist at 15% in, but I don’t think it was overly obvious. The writing was great, and the plot was well-paced. The red herrings were believable, so I definitely doubted my hypothesis a few times as the story progressed.
I enjoyed that the story switched from Rose’s POV to that of the detective, so we got to come at the plot from both angles. I liked Rose’s chapters more than Colin’s, but I really felt for Colin as a character. His character was used in an interesting way to bring the truth to light.
This was my first book by this author, and it won’t be my last. He can certainly spin a compelling thriller, and I was eager to see if my prediction was correct.
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