Title: The Wife Between Us
Authors: Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller
First Publication: 2018
Language: English
Major Characters: Richard Thompson, Maureen Thompson, Vanessa
Theme: The Relationship Between Control and Abuse
Setting: New York City’s Upper East Side (United States)
Narrator: First person from Vanessa Thompson’s point of view
Book Summary: The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
When you read this book, you will make many assumptions.
You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife.
You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement – a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love.
Or You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle.
Assume nothing.
Twisted and deliciously chilling, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen’s The Wife Between Us exposes the secret complexities of an enviable marriage – and the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love.
Read between the lies.
Book Review: The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
Vanessa Thompson awakens in the tiny guestroom in her Aunt Charlotte’s apartment. Her marriage is over and the aftermath is like shattered glass with the pieces of her remaining life never quite fitting together again. Examining the fragments will only initiate the bleeding once more. A promise of retrieving the hidden wine bottles in her closet at the end of the day gives her the impetus to dress for her retail job at Saks. She also walks a tightrope there with impending dismissal looming because of her constant days off.
“I was happy, I think, but I wonder now if my memory is playing tricks on me. If it is giving me the gift of an illusion. We all layer them over our remembrances; the filters through which we want to see our lives.”
Richard had all the fine cut and polish of the successful man on the cover of GQ. His position as a hedge fund manager brought them the finer things in life.
What could possibly go wrong with perfection?
Vanessa asks herself if her skittish behavior was due to the fertility medications she was taking after constant unsuccessful episodes.
Was it the fear of retribution from a horrendous haunting situation that occurred in her senior year of college?
Or was it simply that wine glass that beckoned to be constantly refilled?
Startling news drifts in Vanessa’s direction as the realization comes that Richard is to be remarried soon. One thing that Vanessa knows for sure is that that is not going to happen. Weak in mind, heart, and spirit, Vanessa is determined to get Richard’s attention. One way or another.
The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen deals with the imperfection of our perceptions and the incomplete pictures of ourselves we present to others. We see what we want to see and we present ourselves the way we want to be perceived.
“This could be the case in every relationship, that we think we’ve entered into a union with another person when, in fact, we’ve formed a triangle with one point anchored by a silent but all-seeing judge, the arbiter of reality.”
Sometimes the signs of what’s ahead are there all along, but we aren’t ready or willing to see them. Things that look obvious at a distance aren’t always so clear up close and it can be easier to focus on the details rather than deal with the whole messy picture. Romantic love can further cloud perceptions by softening our critical impulses and compelling us to disregard inconvenient details. Even our own bodies can betray us by making it easy to conflate romantic arousal and fear.
The Wife Between Us is an angst driven, clever, gripping, suspenseful and not your typical domestic psychological thriller novel that was an absolutely thrilling and exciting read. Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen have done such a fantastic job here in The Wife Between Us with this complicated, complex and compelling storyline, creating a fascinating unreliable character here with Vanessa.
The authors do such a great job with this unique and riveting novel The Wife Between Us, cleverly revealing the right pieces of the puzzle to us at the right time which were so brilliantly delivered. Allowing us to only see those pieces after reading it and leaving us discussing just how cleverly plotted this story really was.
