The Wife's Revenge by Deirdre Palmer @rararesources @crookedcatbooks @DLPalmer_Writer #Review #BlogTour #Book

The Wife's Revenge by Deirdre Palmer

Published by Crooked Cat Books, Darkstroke Imprint

Publication Date: 22nd October 2019

Genre: Psychological Suspense

Book Description:

One mistake is all it takes…

Fran Oliver made the biggest mistake of her life when she had an affair with Ben Grammaticus. Both families live in the Sussex village of Oakheart; their children are friends.  Fran handles the interaction between them as best she can, while she will never forgive herself for what she did. At least she’s managed to protect her kind, loving husband, Hector, and three beautiful daughters, from the unsavoury truth about her.

​But that may be about to change.

​

Tessa’s marriage to Ben is sacrosanct, her life perfect.  She won’t sacrifice that for her husband’s indiscretions.  Besides, Ben needs her. She is his saviour, as he is hers.  That’s the way it’s always worked.

​But if she won’t make Ben pay, then others must.

​Armed with proof of the affair, Tessa issues Fran with an ultimatum – ‘Tell Hector, or I will’.  Fran’s carefully balanced life threatens to be destroyed as she desperately seeks an escape from an impossible situation. 

​A cliff overlooks a disused chalk-pit. The locals call it High Heaven.  It’s a place of secrets. And it’s where Oakheart newcomer Maria Capelli died. When Fran discovers a link between herself and Maria, she feels compelled to know more.  As she begins to piece the story together, disturbing truths emerge that skew her version of what has gone before. 

​

Time is running out for Fran.  She’s running scared, every minute of every day.

But who does she need to be most afraid of?

My Review:

Fran and Hector have a lovely life together. They both have fairly secure jobs, okay so they aren't rich and own the least attractive house in their street but they are happy and have 3 wonderful daughters. There are challenges with youngest daughter Caitlin having been diagnosed with Aspergers but the family embrace her differences and do their best to accommodate them in their every day life. Older girls Hazel and Kitty are excellent with her and, despite the usual sibling teasing, are very protective of her.

So what made Fran go against everything she believes in and risk all she has for an ill-advised fling with Ben, father of Hazel's friend Zoe? This is the question Fran asks herself as she struggles to come to terms with what she did the previous year.  The two families can't help but bump into each other in the course of school events and the girls' friendship which doesn't make avoiding Ben since their affair finished any easier.

Ben's wife Tessa is a pillar of the local community, busy organising charity events and the like on a regular basis. But she suddenly starts recruiting Fran to be part of her fundraising efforts more and more often and it becomes obvious that Tessa knows. She is holding Fran to ransom and it's not long before she issues her with an ultimatum to tell Hector what she and Ben did last year.  Tessa wants to ruin all that Fran holds dear, and there's a timescale involved. The only person who knows what has happened yet doesn't seem bothered by any of it is bad boy Ben. He has made it clear that he didn't want the relationship to end - something that Tessa fears the most, and unsettles Fran all the more.

The author leads us through the turmoil of emotions from both women's points of view. Tessa comes across as becoming more and more unpredictable while Fran's mental health begins to suffer. How far will Tessa go to expose the couple? Can Fran talk sense into her before it all blows up in her face?
The tension builds over the course of the book until we reach the point where things have to be resolved.  I was quite shocked with the way the author took the final direction of the story, and while there were hints of this conclusion along the way I was really hoping it would take another path. Despite Ben being cast as the villain of the piece I actually felt a little bit sorry for him once I understood him a bit more. Whether this excuses his behaviour is the subject for some quite emotive discussions should this book be the subject of your local book club I would imagine and with this in mind I would recommend it for group readers. There's some good subject material here.

My thanks to Rachel Gilbey of Rachel's Random Resources for the opportunity to review this book for the blog tour ahead of publication day.

About the Author:

Deirdre lives in Brighton, on the south coast of England, the town where she was born.   Brighton and the surrounding Sussex countryside are a great source of inspiration for her novels. At the age of nine, having learned the word ‘author’ and liking the sound of it, she banged out Enid Blyton rip-offs on an old typewriter.  The writerly ambition went into hibernation after that, but it was always there, through life in general and a career in university administration, at which point it emerged pretty much unscathed and clamouring for attention. Deirdre is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, having ‘graduated’ from the association’s New Writers’ Scheme on publication of her first novel, Remarkable Things. She was twice a major prize-winner in the Mail on Sunday Novel Competition.  As well as novels, she enjoys writing short stories and is published by D C Thomson in The People’s Friend magazine.