Review: The Second Husband by Kate White

Posted June 21, 2022 by Stephanie in 3 Stars, Review, Thriller / 12 Comments

Title: The Second Husband
Author: Kate White
Publication: June 28th 2022 by Harper Paperbacks
Genre: Psychologal Thriller
Find it on: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Play | Kobo
Rating: 3/5★

A woman’s seemingly perfect second marriage is rocked by a discovery about the death of her first husband in this twisty psychological thriller from Kate White, the New York Times bestselling author whom Entertainment Weekly called “impossible to outwit.” 

After losing her husband, Derrick, in what appears to have been a random street crime, thirtysomething Emma has built a new life with widower Tom, who is kind, handsome, driven, and successful. Emma is finally able to feel safe again, both in her relationship with Tom and in the home they’ve made together on the Connecticut shore.

Then one day a homicide detective shows up at Emma and Tom’s door asking questions. Though Emma had been cleared of her husband’s murder, it appears that law enforcement is taking another look at her and the case.

What do they know? Are they on the right track this time? And most importantly, will the renewed investigation ruin Emma’s chances of a happy life?

With twists and turns all the way to the last page, this fast-paced, expertly plotted novel will have you asking that age-old question: how well do you really know the ones you love?

The Second Husband by Kate White is a psychological thriller that’ll turn your head around page after page. Just when you think you’ve figured it all out, something else comes that that has you changing your mind all over again. It’s a twisty page-turner with an unexpected end.

I don’t read a lot of thrillers but I enjoyed this one. The story had a lot of suspense, mystery and me suspecting almost every character in the book and still not being able to figure out who was the culprit. The story also had its fair share of surprising twists, which I really like in thrillers; you never know what to expect.

The Second Husband is the story about Emma Hawke who 27 months after the unsolved murder of her first husband Derrick, is finally happy again with her new husband Tom. Then one day a detective comes knocking on Emma’s door with questions about Tim and they had already met each other before Derrick’s murder. She knows they hadn’t met before until Emma finds out she and Tom were in proximity a few months before Derrick’s death. Has her new husband been stalking her all along? And who’s been leaving Emma threatening notes?

I enjoyed the suspense, the mystery, the unknown of who killed Emma’s first husband and how I never guessed who’d done the murder until it was revealed since that’s something I always love in this genre. But there were also some flaws that I couldn’t overlook and give the book a full four star rating, unfortunately. I wasn’t a super fan of the dialogue in the book. The dialogue for me felt a little too clean, perfect if that makes any sense. Another thing that I didn’t really love was the end. It was a very abrubt and open ending where I felt like some questions were left unanswered. I actually reread the last few pages a couple of times to make sure I didn’t miss something vital but apparantly that was it.

Even though this wasn’t a perfect book (if there’s even such a thing), I still want to read more of the author’s work because this story and its characters, especially Emma, definitely has left me wanting more and see if any of the other books will be more of a fit for me than this one was in the end. It had it’s positives and negatives but I do feel like the good absolutely trumped the bad.

 

 

About the author:

Kate White is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen novels of suspense: eight standalone psychological thrillers, including The Second Husband (June ’22), and eight Bailey Weggins mysteries.

For fourteen years Kate served as the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, which under her became the most successful magazine in single copy sales in the U.S. Though she loved her magazine career, she decided to leave nine years ago to concentrate full-time on another passion: writing suspense fiction.

She has been nominated for many awards in her media career, including an International Thriller Writers award. Her first mystery, If Looks Could Kill, was a Kelly Ripa Book Club pick and #1 bestseller on Amazon. She has been published in countries around the world.

Like many female mystery authors, Kate fell in love with the genre after reading her first Nancy Drew book, in her case The Secret of Redgate Farm.

Kate is a frequent speaker at libraries, book conferences and organizations, and has also appeared on many television shows, including The Today ShowCBS This Morning, and Good Morning America.

She is also the editor of the Mystery Writers of America Cookbook, as well as the author of several popular career books, including I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: How to Ask for the Money, Snag the Promotion, and Create the Career You Deserve, and the ground-breaking Wall Street Journal bestseller, Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do.

Kate, who is married and the mother of two children, divides her time between New York City and Las Flores, Uruguay.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

 

 

12 responses to “Review: The Second Husband by Kate White

  1. verushka

    ‘Impossible to outwit’ is strong praise indeed, and honestly, like you said, you don’t generally read thrillers, so this one is worth adding to my TBR. (also, I didn’t expect Tom to be a potential stalker! Creepy!)

  2. Good dialogue is so necessary to ANY genre, imo! I can totally understand not 100% vibing because of the dialogue being off. I’m glad that the mystery itself kept you engaged enough to enjoy the book.

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