Audiobook Review - The Wife In The Photo

Hey Siri, please play “No Body, No Crime” by Taylor Swift.

Right, now we’ve got the right back music, let’s talk about The Wife In The Photo by Emily Shanter, shall we?

Title and Author: The Wife in the Photo by Emily Shiner

Publisher: Bookoutrue Audio

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Audiobook gifted by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for honest review/reaction

Evan Warner needs help. He and his daughter, Jessica, are struggling to cope after the death of his wife, Lola, and the house has become too much. He needs a housekeeper. Someone to take the pressure off for a while. So, when his PA at work mentions Ariel, someone from her church who would be perfect as his temporary housekeeper, he jumps at the chance.

But Ariel isn’t who she says she is. She knows that Lola’s death wasn’t a tragic accident. She’s positive that Evan killed Lola. And she’s going to prove it…
I am genuine torn on this one. Because, on the one hand, this did exactly what I wanted – a twisty, edge of your seat, perfect holiday thriller with a cat and mouse element to it, from all four points-of-view (Ariel and Evan are the main two, but we get little glimpses of Lola’s and Jessica’s diaries, and these add an extra layer to the story, which I like as these diary entries do make you second-guess what you think is going on and what’s going to happen next.

And on the other… it’s really predictable (I mean, really predictable. I mean, I saw nearly all the twists coming a mile away. Plus, the reveals were always revealed in really strange places – I mean, most authors would have revealed them at end of chapters as cliffhangers and that would make you keep reading. But here, they were revealed either halfway through a chapter or a few paragraphs into a chapter and it was very unsettled as it was really in a nonchalant way). Also, this is very repetitive. It’s the repetitiveness that really got to me in the end. How many times a chapter – no, a paragraph – do we need to told something? It was bashed over the head time and time again. If it was just one character that did this, I would be a little forgiving, but we got this from all four points-of-view.

It's a fun, popcorn thriller that makes perfect summer reading, but the repetition and the lack of surprising twists lets this down for me.