The Ex-Wife: A nail biting gripping psychological thriller

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I am insanely in love with George Cross, a perfect detective for our time and for all time' Stephen Fry.

Les deux auteures emportent le lecteur dans un thriller-labyrinthe dans lequel on remonte le temps. Alice is under arrest and waiting for trial. She supposedly killed Norah, the fiancee of her ex-husband. It is set over multiple time lines. When books show what has happened in the past and what is happening in the present I find it really helps the reader (if it is well done) understand why things are happening and what has lead to the present activities and decisions. It also shows the bigger pictureLost in thought, Alice Hargraves, 45, watched as the young police officer opened the cell door for her to go to court for a murder she did not commit. But Jen is not completely out of the picture and all is not as it appears. Natasha’s charming and peachy life is going to crumble and it seems she can trust no one. The book opens with Alice on trial for the murder of her ex-husband’s fiancée & her daughter’s boyfriend. In court, her air is one of acceptance & it appears that the only unknown is how long the prison sentence will be. We are then thrown to six months previously & shown the torturous route to present day.

A recently divorced wife is accused of murdering her young, pretty and seemingly perfect replacement. Things are complicated and the story weaves between the past and present with really unexpected and surprising twists along the way and the biggest and most surprising twist at the very end. I loved the way Jess used the present story of “Anna” on the run to counterbalance where we were at in the main story. We know SOMETHING happened that led to a life on the run, but getting there is the fun part. I have to quote this passage here as I really liked it, "....his mouth was set into a permanent smirk, as if he'd set a bomb somewhere and was waiting for it to go off." Another tremendous line is, "Everyone knew that misery loved dog videos" and I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment ! And anyone who gets covered in mud to comfort a strange dog would be AOK in my book as well, pardoning the pun.This is a very clever and gripping tale of how easily one’s life can change and unravel at a moment’s notice and impact on many other lives.

Natasha .... Oh, man. I don't know if I have ever disliked a character as much as I do her. Her reactions seemed very odd, laughable even, and didn't seem to match the situations. I am not sure if the character was supposed to come across as naive and vulnerable but I felt she was weak and moronic. Two traits I can't stand in a female lead. I would take bitchy Jen any day of the weak and I was kind of rooting for her to throat punch Natasha. I had a much better experience with this author the second time around...I'm glad I gave her another go. 😊Hauntingly beautiful, this is a story of love and redemption, family ties, the dark secrets and the lengths we’ll go to protect the ones we love. My life was perfect until she came along. Norah. Younger, prettier and about to marry my own ex-husband, they are a walking cliché. I hate her. I hate them both. She’s taken everything from me – my husband, my life, my home - but I refuse to allow her to take Cassie, my beautiful daughter. That's a step too far. Now I’ve discovered that Norah plans to have a baby of her own and that causes me no end of problems. She could destroy everything and reveal my deepest, darkest secrets. That can never be allowed to happen. No matter what it costs… Just like with the storyline the characters come to life with Sally and Amanda's fantastic writing skills. They are well rounded, realistic and strong making them all the more believable. Alice's life falls apart as she is arrested for the murder of her ex husband Mark's new fiancee along and her ex husband and daughter shun her. Being a parent myself my heart absolutely broke for Alice as she not only had to deal with the heartbreak of losing her husband but also deal with the attitude and problems that come with raising a teenager that has her own problems along with a family seperation added. I really liked AAlice but I could have shouted at her on a few occasions for some of the things that she did. However, it feels like she cant do right for doing wrong when it comes to her daughter Cassie and while she dislikes her new boyfriend Scott, neither do Mark, Norah or Felix, Cassie does what the majority of teenagers do and the more her parents didn't want her to do something the more she pushed against them. Regardless of how annoyed at Cassie |I was at times my heart also went out to her as she was going through problems with Scott along with the breakdown of her family. Where most teenagers would go completely off the rails I do believe that Cassie's behaviour was pretty mild compared to most others would have been. I actually liked Norah too and although she did get engaged to Mark not long after he separated from his wife, she was not the one who had been in a relationship so she didn't really do anything wrong and she was actually a likeable character. I wasn't a huge fan of Mark but I will say that he didn't slate Alice in regards to her parenting skills and they did try to do their best and work together with Alice for Cassie. The only one I actually didn't like was Scott who I didn't trust from the start and didn't like the way he was with Cassie. I won't go into more details as I don't want to risk giving anything away but Amanda and Sally really have done an amazing job constructing an addictive and explosive psychological thriller with fantastic and varied characters that you just won't be able to put down!! For better and a long slow slide into worse: three more husbands; painful affairs (one with a pot-smoking Air Force private 17 years her junior ); multiple abortions; the squander of her considerable earnings; a federal indictment for helping the private desert; a grand larceny charge; and homelessness. The gossip columnist Walter Winchell, who himself came to a sorry, secluded end, regularly put Parrott’s corkscrew turns of fortune on blast.