Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Review: Pretty Little Wife by Darby Kane

Lila Ridgefield lives in an idyllic college town, but not everything is what it seems. Lila isn’t what she seems.

A student vanished months ago. Now, Lila’s husband, Aaron, is also missing. At first these cases are treated as horrible coincidences until it’s discovered the student is really the third of three unexplained disappearances over the last few years. The police are desperate to find the connection, if there even is one. Little do they know they might be stumbling over only part of the truth….

With the small town in an uproar, everyone is worried about the whereabouts of their beloved high school teacher. Everyone except Lila, his wife. She’s definitely confused about her missing husband but only because she was the last person to see his body, and now it’s gone.

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“Debut mystery author Kane blends tense domestic suspense with procedural details and legal thriller–like verbal sparring. A page-turner built on skillfully layered plotting and an intriguing protagonist.” -Booklist (starred review)

“If you’re looking for one of the best and tightly-plotted thrillers you’ll read this year, let me introduce you to PRETTY LITTLE WIFE.” -Mystery and Suspense Magazine

“Intriguing…Kane is off to a promising start.” -Publishers Weekly
 
 What I thought about Pretty Little Wife

Nothing is quite what it seems in this suspenseful thriller from Darby Kane aka HelenKay Dimon. I'm going to keep this short and sweet because I don't want to spoil a single thing.

When a well-liked teacher goes missing, there's the possibility the disappearance is related to missing students.  The cops are looking for any lead that might link these situations together 

And then there's Lila, who knows more than she wants to say and has secrets of her own. There's so much to uncover in this story. 

I love crime dramas to see how they unravel the crime and the motives, and Pretty Life Wife is complicated. But what I loved most about this story is the suspense -- that edge of the seat feeling that makes you either put the book down because it's too intense or stay up all night reading because you want to see what happens next. I like lots of twists too.  Pretty Little Wife did both for me.

Who is Darby Kane? HelenKay! That’s who!



HelenKay Dimon books are romances, and just as mysteries end with solving the Whodunnit, romances guarantee a Happily Ever After. HelenKay writes in three subgenres within the Romance HEA: Romantic Suspense, Erotic Romance, and Contemporary Romance, and every HelenKay Dimon book has an HEA.

However…

Pretty Little Wife is straight suspense. It’s a thriller and HelenKay is thrilled about it. Here is the set-up:

Her husband is missing, which would be fine with her except she put his body RIGHT THERE and now it’s gone.

But it’s not a romance, and in order not to confuse the promise of an HEA, HelenKay and her incredible editor decided to bring out Pretty Little Wife under a pseudonym.

Enter DARBY KANE. All the great plotting, rich characterization, and fast pacing readers expect from a HelenKay novel — but in a thriller.

HelenKay Dimon is a former divorce lawyer turned bestselling author of more than 40 Romantic Suspense, Contemporary, and Erotic Romance books and novellas. Her books have been featured in various national and international venues and she has had two books named Red-Hot Reads in Cosmo magazine. 

She is a four-time RITA® Award finalist in romantic suspense (for Mr. and Mr. SmithFacing Fire, Guarding Mr. Fine and The Fixer) and is 2018 RITA® Award winner for The Fixer. She’s also a Reviewers’ Choice Best Book Award winner in romantic suspense for The Fixer

In addition to writing, HelenKay is Chair of the Policy Advisory Committee of the Romance Writers of America and frequently teaches workshops and classes on fiction writing and romance writing. She lives in San Diego where she is (or should be) working on her next series but might be streaming a show on Netflix.

Facebook :  https://www.facebook.com/HelenKayDimon

 

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