The Loving Husband by Christobel Kent

Blurb from Goodreads:


“A RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK AND SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER

'Wow. This one will keep your bedside light on until the small hours - it's unputdownable.'

Richard & Judy

For fans of Apple Tree Yard and The Silent Wife, The Loving Husband draws readers into a marriage where nothing is as it seems...

Fran Hall and her husband Nathan have moved with their two children to a farmhouse on the edge of the Fens - a chance to get away from London and have a fresh start.

But when Fran wakes one night to find Nathan gone, she makes a devastating discovery. As questions about her husband and her relationships start to mount, Fran's life begins to spiral out of control.

What is she hiding from the police about her marriage, and does she really know the man she shared her bed with?”

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I have previously read one of Christobel’s novels - The Crooked House - which although I enjoyed I found it a confusing read and I felt the same way about The Loving Husband although there was less enjoyment with this one.

The premise of the story is a familiar one - a seemingly happily married couple, one dies and so opens the floodgates of secrets and lies. The book starts off pretty well but, and herein lies the problem for me, it switches from past (years ago) to past (recent) to present and I found it difficult to keep track. I struggled to connect with any of the characters or muster up any sympathy for the main character, Fran who, for me, was a dull as dirty dish-water. The investigating Police Officers were, in my opinion, very unprofessional and lacking in any sympathy.

There was a positive however, I felt Christobel captured the isolation and desolation of the setting extremely well. Her description of the farmhouse and how she captures the cold was excellent but, unfortunately, this didn’t do much to make me enjoy the book any more and I just couldn’t get into it and it seemed to take an absolute age to finish it.

This book has been described as an “unputdownable” psychological thriller which is “utterly compulsive”, “eerily menacing” and “terrifyingly good” but for me it was too easy to put it down and not so easy to pick it back up.

My apologies to the author who has put blood, sweat and tears into this book but it just wasn’t for me but I would like to thank the publisher, Little Brown Book Group UK via NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review.

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