Alice Feeney’s book ‘His & Hers’ has a Netflix adaptation that I really enjoyed watching. Though I had heard quite a bit about the author before watching it, I hadn’t actually picked up any of her books. But His & Hers, a mindbending thriller about a murder in Blackdown village where the primary suspects of the case are DCI Jack Harper and his ex-wife, newsreader Anna Andrews, both of whom are investigating the case and suspect each other, had me on the edge of my seat. I wanted to read the book despite knowing what happens in the end.
Initially I couldn’t get my hands on a copy of ‘His & Hers’ but I came across ‘My Husband’s Wife’ at the bookstore and despite the book not being my preferred size (book lovers will understand that there is always a preferred size and font, and maybe even paper), I couldn’t resist getting it. I wanted to read more of the author’s works after having such a good time watching His & Hers. The British novelist and former journalist has quite a few books to her credit and I pretty much intend to read them all. On my list are ‘Daisy Darker’, ‘Rock Paper Scissors’, and ‘Sometimes I Lie’. But I digress.
Set in a village called Hope Falls, My Husband’s Wife is a far-fetched story full of intricate twists and turns. Eden Fox goes for a run right before her painting exhibition is set to take place and comes back to find that her key doesn’t fit the lock in the home she has recently moved into with her husband. A woman who looks like her opens the door and claims to be her. Worse, her husband says this stranger is his wife and that he doesn’t know who she is. It’s a convoluted plot that gets even more confusing as different narrators tell the story. It doesn’t help that the characters are unreliable and shifty.
Spoiler Alert: I wasn’t satisfied with the hurried and incredulous ending. Nothing about the plot led to it. The plot and the ending, in my opinion, seemed like they belonged in two separate books. The problem with thrillers with too many twists and turns is that they stop being believable when there are just too many of them. It’s the same with jump scares. They lose their effect. To be honest, I’m still not sure what exactly happened and how it unfolded. I would give it a two and half out of five stars though it could have been a five out of five stars with a little more character development and fewer twists.
Thriller
My Husband’s Wife
Alice Feeney
Published: 2026
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Pages: 310, Paperback
