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A review by bergamotbee
My Wife, the Serial Killer by H.J. Garbett
3.5
Fran has been happily married to her husband Gareth for years, and is looking forward to starting a family. The only issue is that she's currently standing over the body of the neighbour she killed, and she needs to find a way to dispose of everything without it leading back to her. Especially considering her husband is a detective, pining for the respect and admiration of his peers by searching for a case that elevates him in their eyes. Would he sell her out if he knew?
*****
This was such an incredible concept for a book, and I loved the setup and start to it. It kept me engaged for a few chapters, but then just started to slip. We deal with a lot of subterfuge as well as leads into Fran and Gareth's characters that seemed to be pointless to the overall plot. Gareth noticing coworkers and "friends" attractiveness and physical prowess felt like an odd aside to include. Especially as the author made him out to be such an undesirable lead. He wasn't respected by his boss or his peers, he was losing his hair, out of shape, and unsatisfactory in bed. All of these tied together with him being an unending people pleaser, staying late at work, neglecting his wife, and putting his career above all else, just made me want Fran to off him instead of lament about how much she loved him.
Aside from that, I found it funny that Fran was a killer, but so incredibly unprepared and genuinely terrible at it. She wasn't made out to be some kind of brutal genius. She was an average person, trying to right perceived wrongs and maybe not as well-versed as she should be, despite enjoying doing so. Her monologues were hilarious and kept the story upbeat through longer slogs, but her husband's POV dragged it down until the latter portions of the book where he did a complete 180 and suddenly became a mildly interesting lead.
The ending in general did leave a lot to be desired. I know it's more open to interpretation, but after Gareth and Angus making huge strides and changes into who they fundamentally are, it just kind of wraps up. I expected more from the description, and I wish we'd either had earlier character arcs, more interesting characters, or characters that acted in ways that aligned with who they are, and not just changing on a whim and then having everything tied up neat and tidy.
All in all it was a decent novel, but not something I would rave about.
*****
Thank you to Storm Publishing for the digital ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
*****
This was such an incredible concept for a book, and I loved the setup and start to it. It kept me engaged for a few chapters, but then just started to slip. We deal with a lot of subterfuge as well as leads into Fran and Gareth's characters that seemed to be pointless to the overall plot. Gareth noticing coworkers and "friends" attractiveness and physical prowess felt like an odd aside to include. Especially as the author made him out to be such an undesirable lead. He wasn't respected by his boss or his peers, he was losing his hair, out of shape, and unsatisfactory in bed. All of these tied together with him being an unending people pleaser, staying late at work, neglecting his wife, and putting his career above all else, just made me want Fran to off him instead of lament about how much she loved him.
Aside from that, I found it funny that Fran was a killer, but so incredibly unprepared and genuinely terrible at it. She wasn't made out to be some kind of brutal genius. She was an average person, trying to right perceived wrongs and maybe not as well-versed as she should be, despite enjoying doing so. Her monologues were hilarious and kept the story upbeat through longer slogs, but her husband's POV dragged it down until the latter portions of the book where he did a complete 180 and suddenly became a mildly interesting lead.
The ending in general did leave a lot to be desired. I know it's more open to interpretation, but after Gareth and Angus making huge strides and changes into who they fundamentally are, it just kind of wraps up. I expected more from the description, and I wish we'd either had earlier character arcs, more interesting characters, or characters that acted in ways that aligned with who they are, and not just changing on a whim and then having everything tied up neat and tidy.
All in all it was a decent novel, but not something I would rave about.
*****
Thank you to Storm Publishing for the digital ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.