Millicent is eager to tell him of the new twist she has for their hobby: to lay their killings at the feet of a previous serial killer. He thought they’d done away with the woman months ago, but forensic evidence shows that she was alive until fairly recently.
When the body of their latest victim is found, however, the husband is confused. Soon, husband and wife are looking for ways to murder on a regular basis, all while juggling work and kids and social lives. The bond this created between the couple-as well as the sizzle it brought to their sex life-only strengthened when they found themselves killing someone else who threatened their family stability. It started innocently enough, only a few years before the start of the book’s narrative, when the husband used deadly force to protect Millicent from imminent harm. So far, so normal-except that Millicent and her husband share a decidedly abnormal hobby: serial murder. Millicent is the strict parent, while her husband is more of a pushover for two kids testing their boundaries as they grow into their teenage years. They’re your standard American family, living a little bit beyond their means. They have two kids, a 14-year-old named Rory and a 13-year-old named Jenna. The novel is told from the point of view of the unnamed husband, a country club tennis pro, who is married to the beautiful Millicent, a real estate agent. But now we have My Lovely Wife, which heralds the arrival of a writer who deserves to be a superstar, the previously unpublished but terrifically talented Samantha Downing. The last psychological thriller to have that effect on me was Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, which for the longest time seemed to be the standard bearer for truly probing, truly messed-up mysteries.
But to finish a book and marvel at what I’ve just read? Surprised, definitely entertained, often. Because of my deep familiarity with the genre, it’s perishing rare for me to finish a mystery and actually be shocked by what has transpired.
I read a lot of mystery novels, and I have done so since long before I started reviewing here for Criminal Element. My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing is a wildly compulsive debut thriller about a couple whose 15-year marriage has finally gotten too interesting.
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