A Book A Week

The best thrillers hook you from the very first page, setting up a situation so tantalizing you can’t help but keep reading. That’s long been the case with Alice Feeney’s books. She has a knack for devising irresistible hooks, writing stories you’re instantly drawn into. While she may not always stick the landing, Feeney never plays it safe. She always swings for the fences. Her latest thriller, My Husband’s Wife, is no exception. Its a twisty page-turner with an opening so audacious it may be the hookiest first chapter I read all year.

It’s been a big week for Eden Fox. She’s just moved into Spyglass, a historic home in the small coastal town of Hope Falls, and tonight marks her first gallery exhibition as an artist. Sure, it’s only the local gallery in her new hometown, but Eden can’t help believing this could be the break she’s been dreaming of. Naturally, her nerves are shot, so she turns to the one thing that always calms her: a run. As she moves, her worries fall away, leaving only the sound of her measured breath and her feet hitting the pavement in steady rhythm.

When Eden returns home, she feels refreshed and renewed—ready to face the day ahead. But when she slides her key into the lock of her new house, it doesn’t fit. She tries again. Still nothing. She left everything inside—her phone, her wallet—so, hoping her husband is still home, she rings the doorbell.

Relief flickers when she sees movement on the other side of the door. But when it opens, she’s greeted by a woman she doesn’t recognize—one who looks eerily like her. Eden demands to know who she is and why she’s in her home. The woman calmly insists the house is hers.

And when Eden’s husband appears at the door to see what the commotion is about, the situation turns even more terrifying. He insists that the stranger standing beside him is his wife.

From the very beginning of My Husband’s Wife, Alice Feeney presents readers with an impossible situation. It’s a case of stolen identity that had me glued to the pages from the start. She pairs this central mystery with the story of another woman who, six months earlier, inherited Spyglass, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and encountered a mysterious medical company that claimed it could predict the exact date of a person’s death.

These two threads alternate, pulling readers across shifting perspectives and timelines until everything converges in a conclusion that feels both earned and inevitable. Feeney isn’t aiming for strict realism here, but if you’re willing to go with the flow, you’ll be rewarded. I’ve found her work to be hit or miss in the past, but My Husband’s Wife is a definite hit for me. Go in with as few preconceptions as possible and enjoy the ride. I certainly did.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2026, 6)