mandikaye 's review for:

The Final Wife by Jenny Blackhurst

3.0

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 Look, I love a messy little domestic thriller. Give me a dead husband with too many secrets, an emotionally unstable wife confessing to a murder she’s not explaining, and a nosy detective with a tragic backstory, and I will gleefully dive in like it’s my emotional support popcorn. 

The Final Wife kicks off strong. The setup? Delicious. Luke (the dead dude) was a charming narcissist with a history of screwing over women, so there’s no shortage of people with motive. Anna, the new wife, confesses to the murder but conveniently forgets the whole "details" part. Meanwhile, DS Rebecca Dance is trying to sort out the truth while wading through the emotional wreckage Luke left behind. 

And yes, the twist at the end landed for me—it was satisfying, if a little soap-opera-adjacent. 

But here’s the thing: the middle third dragged like my attention span on a Monday morning. The multiple POVs started to feel samey. Like, are you a haunted ex-wife or just another woman with coffee-colored curls and a vague sense of guilt? The voices bled together, and a few of the side plots (hi, Jimmy and Tom) felt like they were dropped halfway through. 

I didn’t hate it. It was compulsively readable and had its moments. But it didn’t hit that emotional punch or originality I was hoping for. Solid? Yes. Memorable? Eh.