Book Review: The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

“Gaze detection, it’s called – our ability to sense when someone is observing us. An entire system of the human brain is devoted to this genetic inheritance from our ancestors, who relied on the trait to avoid becoming an animal’s prey.” – The Wife Between Us

I was overdue for an unputdownable, exciting psychological thriller. Enter The Wife Between Us! I had heard of this book and decided to give it a shot. I was a little hesitant as I have read some “thrillers” over the last year that were anything but thrilling. But I was pleasantly surprised with this new release and finished it in less than a week.

Thrillers are tough to review. They are suspenseful for a reason – you’re trying to figure out what is really going on, which characters you can trust, and sometimes whodunit. I do not want to give away any spoilers for this book so this review will be brief.

The Wife Between Us is told from two different perspectives. We read about Nellie in the third person and then, intriguingly, we read Vanessa’s story in her own words. The two different perspectives provide completely unreliable narration which is exactly what you need for a psychological thriller. There is a big Gone Girl worthy plot twist about half way through the book. I was intrigued prior to the twist, but from that point, I couldn’t put it down. I really can’t say much more without giving away any spoilers, which I am desperate not to do. I will say this is not the kind of book with a surprise “whodunit” revealed at the end. Though, there are revelations at the end of the book that tie the loose ends of the story together. I loved that. Too often with psychological thrillers, there are too many loose ends. This is easy because of the psychological factor – was that part real, was it all a dream/ delusion, etc. But The Wife Between Us does a great job of revealing what happens to each character at the end of the story.

If you’re looking for a good thriller, pick up The Wife Between Us!