Saturday 14 January 2017

The Loving Husband - Christobel Kent




Fran Hall and her husband Nathan have moved with their two children to a farmhouse on the edge of the Fens - a chance to get away from London and have a fresh start.
But when Fran wakes one night to find Nathan gone, she makes a devastating discovery. As questions about her husband and her relationships start to mount, Fran's life begins to spiral out of control.
What is she hiding from the police about her marriage, and does she really know the man she shared her bed with?

What did I think?

I had high hopes for Christobel Kent's The Loving Husband after seeing it on social media, but sadly it didn't really deliver for me.  I felt quite indifferent about the whole story and unfortunately as soon as I turned the last page it became a forgotten story for me.  That's not to say it's all bad, as there is enough of a hook to keep a bit of interest and it's a reasonable enough story but the characters are so flat and unemotional that I wasn't bothered what happened to them.

It is clear from the start that Fran and Nathan Hall have a bit of a strange marriage.  It would appear that Nathan has only shown affection to Fran twice, resulting in their two beautiful children.  Fran remembers Nathan coming to bed one night and apparently completely out of character snuggles into her and one thing leads to another.  A few hours later Fran wakes up to find the bed empty and she finds Nathan dead in a ditch outside.  The police investigate and predict Nathan's time of death prior to the time that Fran said he came to bed...so who was in the bed with her and how the devil didn't she know it wasn't her husband?  Fran becomes the prime suspect in Nathan's murder and she doesn't help herself by keeping things from the police.  As the events surrounding Nathan's death and the story of his marriage unfolds, it becomes clear that all is not as it seems. 

All in all, it was a reasonable story with a satisfactory outcome but nothing really to write home about.  I think I have read so many great psychological books lately that the bar has been raised quite high and therefore many books will fail to deliver.  Although I'm sure some people will love this book, it left me feeling flat, apathetic and disappointed.  

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:




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