Review:My Wife Is Missing by D. J. Palmer

When a woman disappears with her two children, one husband will do anything to find them--even confront the secrets of his own past--in D. J. Palmer's My Wife Is Missing, a twisty thriller from the author of The New Husband.

A family vacation turns into a nightmare for Michael Hart when he discovers his wife and two children have disappeared from their New York City hotel room. Horrified, he fears they’ve been kidnapped. Michael’s frantic search to find them takes a shocking turn when he discovers that his wife, Natalie, appears to have left quite willingly, taking their children with her. The police want to know why, and so does Michael. But there may be a reason why Natalie ran, something Michael can’t tell the police—the truth about his past.

While untangling his deceptions might be the key to locating Natalie, Michael knows it could also be his undoing. To find his wife, he must now turn to the one person capable of exposing all that he’s been hiding. Natalie thinks she has Michael all figured out and has hatched a plan to escape from him permanently. One detail, though, threatens to derail her efforts: sleep—or more accurately, the lack of it. Since the moment the shocking revelations about her husband came to light, Natalie’s insomnia has worsened to the point that she now suffers from delusions.

Are her fears about Michael valid—or a symptom of her condition? With her children’s lives at risk, the stakes for Natalie could not be higher. On her own, running low on energy and resources, avoiding increasingly close calls with Michael—who is on the hunt and closing in fast—Natalie needs someone to turn to for help. But who can she trust when she can’t even trust herself?

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What I thought about My Wife Is Missing

Michael Hart takes his family to New York City on a vacation, only to find them missing when he brings some pizza back to the hotel room. The opening of this mystery/psychological thriller  grabbed me right away.

The first complication is that Natalie isn't all that stable -- she has insomnia and some other issues that may or may not be related to her sleep deprivation.  There is a dual pov to help fill in the blanks, and at times both characters are unlikable.

Since this is a mystery, I don't want to spoil anything, so I'm not going to get into the details of the plot.  There's more to things and bigger reveals as the story moves along.  The middle is a bit slow and repeats and the big payoff is in the last twenty five percent of the book.  There are secrets.  There are twists.  The question becomes which one do you believe?  Even though some of the plot elements were a touch unrealistic, it did keep me guessing.

Overall, I did enjoy this story and it worked for me as a mystery/psychological thriller as long as I didn't spend a lot of time questioning things and just went with the flow of the story, which was okay by me. 

Review: The New Husband by D.J. Palmer

The New Husband

D.J. Palmer’s second novel, THE NEW HUSBAND, coming Spring 2020 from St. Martin’s Press asks the question: can lightning strike twice when it comes to making a terrible choice in man? 

What makes Simon Fitch so perfect?

-He knows all her favorite foods, music, and movies.
-Her son adores him. He was there when she needed him most.
-He anticipates her every need.
-He would never betray her like her first husband.

The perfect husband. He checks all the boxes.

The question is, why?

Nina Garrity learned the hard way that her missing husband, Glen, had been leading a double life with another woman. But with Glen gone―presumably drowned while fishing on his boat―she couldn't confront him about the affair or find closure to the life he blew apart.

Now, a year and a half later, Nina has found love again and hopes she can put her shattered world back together. Simon, a widower still grieving the death of his first wife, thinks he has found his dream girl in Nina, and his charm and affections help break through to a heart hardened by betrayal. Nina's teenage son, Connor, embraces Simon as the father he wishes his dad could have been, while her friends see a different side to him, and they aren't afraid to use the word obsession.

Nina works hard to bridge the divide that’s come between her daughter and Simon. She wants so badly to believe her life is finally getting back on track, but she’ll soon discover that the greatest danger to herself and her children are the lies people tell themselves.

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What I thought about The New Husband

Wow! I quite liked this story of a newly widowed woman trying to move beyond a devastating tragedy and betrayal.  It's goint to be really hard to review this without spoilers, so this may be short.  I wouldn't want to spoil a thing.

  

This psychological thriller/ family drama isn't my typical read, but the description looked interesting and I was in the mood for something suspenseful.  I defintely got that with The New Husband. From the start of the story, Simon seemed like a creep but only the daughter sees the deep level of creepiness.  Nina and her son Connor are almost clueless.  It's not easy recovering from Glen's disappearance and betrayal.

The story is told in multiple point of views, and I liked that about the story because it kept pulling me forward. There are some cliched scenes in this that seemed like they were out of a made for TV movie, but I really didn't mind that.  It did take a while for the story to really get rolling, and once I got to that point, the story really took off and I couldn't put this down.  The second half of the book is quite good in terms of pacing and tension and I found myself cheering at the point one of the clueless actually start waking up!

I really did enjoy this story and found myself staying up late to get to the ending (which I loved) and even re-reading bits I read too quickly in my haste to find out what happened.  Those are good indicators for me when gauging my enjoyment of the story.

So, overall, a good story. There's a bit I didn't see coming and I loved that about it.  The first half of the book is a little slow, but the second half more than makes up for it. Loved the ending.  This was my first book from this author and I would definitely check out future titles.

An ARC was provided. This is my honest review.

D.J. Palmer is the author of numerous critically acclaimed suspense novels. A former e-commerce entrepreneur, D.J. Palmer now resides in New Hampshire and is currently at work on a new book.

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