Never mind the small details, just lose yourself
I knew I would have to be at home for a substantial part of last week, to be able to sign off some builders as their work neared completion. So I decided to take the week off work in the hope of some much-needed reading and chillout time.
Immediately, life chose to laugh in my face. To describe everything that happened to stop me from either reading or relaxing would take far too long and frankly, isn’t interesting enough to include here. Suffice to say though that the first weekend and the following Monday and Tuesday were so full-on that I couldn’t even think about picking up a book. And it’s probably also fair to say that by Wednesday, when I did finally start to read, my attention span was rather short.
This was a pity, because the book in question was My Perfect Marriage by A J Campbell and it has a great opening hook. Ashley is at a birthday party for Grace, the daughter of her best friend Lucy, when she finds her friend dead and her husband covered in her blood. The scene, and the feeling of Ashley’s world having suddenly and inexplicably fallen apart, are so vividly and powerfully portrayed that I almost felt as though I was there, standing next to her and seeing everything she saw and felt.
Note, however, that I said ‘almost’. There was a slight problem. Perhaps it was my inability to pay the opening chapters of the book the attention they deserved, but it seemed as though quite a lot of new characters were introduced in quick succession. This meant that what should have been pure shock at Lucy having been found murdered and Danny covered in her blood was instead mixed with confusion, as I tried to remember who Lucy and Danny actually were.
Now that I’m on the subject of niggles, I’ll get a couple more over with. The storyline did feel quite complicated. Multiple new strands are introduced as the book progresses and, whilst I could just about work out how they all fitted together, I just wondered if it was necessary for them all to feature. They’d have been fine in something like a police procedural, where an investigation will inevitably turn up a lot of red herrings. But this book is a psychological thriller first and foremost, and I couldn’t help but feel that a simpler plot would have allowed the emotions – the anxiety, the tension, the ‘what if …’ – to have come to the fore more powerfully.
It did also seem as though most of the women in the book were essentially doing, or trying to do the right thing whereas all of the men were somehow not to be trusted. Perhaps it’s understandable for a female author to do this in order to satisfy what is probably a mostly female readership. But as a male reader, I do have to say that it is starting to feel a little bit wearing for this to be such a common feature in so many recently published novels.
The good news though is that, whilst reading the book, I really didn’t care about any of these points. Because once I’d worked out in my head which character was who, I spent the next evening glued to the book. Every part of what Ashley goes through, from being determined that her husband is innocent to wondering if she ever knew him at all, from loving him to feeling afraid of him, is completely believable. And because it’s believable, it’s relatable and powerful. I wanted Danny to be innocent just as much as his wife did, and at the same time shared some of her fear. Which was more than enough for me to keep reading into the small hours, finally putting my kindle down only because my eyes had lost their ability to focus on the words, only to pick it up again the following day and devour the rest of the book through to the ending.
Ah, yes, the ending. My first reaction – not for the first time recently – was ‘hmm’.
It’s absolutely, wonderfully, fast-paced and tense, and yet it also felt a bit predictable. I won’t give any details for fear of spoilers, but there did seem to be another, more original and much more shocking way that A J could have ended the book, and I rather wished she had.
It sounds like I’m being quite critical of this book, and that’s not right. Ultimately, the only issue I had with it is that I wondered, but ultimately didn’t really care about some of the plot details. But none of these were enough to make the book any less absorbing.
If you can find somewhere to shut yourself away from the outside world for a short while, good on you. But if you need something to keep yourself shut away, My Perfect Marriage could be the very thing.
My thanks to Bookouture for including me on the blog tour. I’m sorry that my review is overdue, but will share it on Goodreads, Amazon and my social media pages.
My rating: ★★★★
14th April 2024
The blurb
My husband is accused of killing my best friend. Can I trust anything he says?
It feels like all the air has been knocked out of me. My best friend is dead, killed at her own daughter’s birthday party. All I want to do is run into my husband’s loving arms. But he’s in handcuffs, covered in her blood. His voice quivers, almost sobbing as officers put him in the police car. ‘You don’t think I did this, do you? I was trying to save her.’
At first, I’m sure he couldn’t have done it. The man I love wouldn’t hurt anyone. But as I try to prove that he didn’t murder Lucy, secrets begin unravelling…
It starts with the messages between the two of them. Initially, they seem innocent enough. But the more I look, the more I become convinced they were having an affair. Then I find out about his divorce lawyer…
Suddenly my whole life feels like a lie. If he was hiding his plan to leave me for Lucy, can I believe his protests that he is innocent? And if he really did murder his lover, what else is he capable of?
An unputdownable thriller that will keep you up all night! This gripping read is perfect for fans of The Housemaid, The Woman in the Window and Shari Lapena.
About the author
AJ CAMPBELL is an Amazon bestselling author of six psychological suspense novels and promises stories full of twists, turns and torment. Her fourth book. The Phone Call was released in July 2022, and it topped the Amazon charts for several months. It was shortlisted for the Adult Prize for Fiction at the Selfie Book Awards 2023. She released her fifth novel, The Wrong Key in January 2023.
AJ draws inspiration for her stories from seemingly unbelievable situations in which ordinary people find themselves. She creates compelling characters that resonate with her readers. AJ lives in the UK on the Essex / Hertfordshire border with her husband, sons, and cocker spaniel, Max. She is a dog lover, Netflix junkie, and a wine and Asian food enthusiast. And, either reading, watching TV, or writing, AJ enjoys nothing more than getting stuck into a twisty story!
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