The Younger Wife

November 1, 2021

Baldacci sends private investigator and ex-World War II veteran Aloysius Archer to Los Angeles--that is, Dream Town--for another dangerous case (one million copy first printing). Having crafted two Sam and Remi Fargo adventures with the late Cussler (Pirate and The Romanov Ransom), former California law enforcement officer Burcell takes the daring duo on another far-flung adventure in Clive Cussler's The Serpent's Eye (originally scheduled for Sept. 2021). In the New York Times best-selling Fisher's An Honest Lie, Rainy has been hiding out from her bad-news past atop a remote, fog-cloaked mountain but decides to risk a trip to Las Vegas with some friends, where one of them is trapped by a killer as bait to lure Rainy (10,000-copy hardcover and 200,000-copy paperback first printing). One Crimson Summer, thanks to mega-best-selling Graham, Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent Amy Larson is sent a toy red horse--a sign that she and FBI agent Hunter Forrest didn't wipe out the Doomsday cult that's about to fight a bloody turf war in northern Florida with several South American cartels (75,000-copy first printing). In best-selling Secrets of Midwives author Hepworth's latest, Tully and Rachel have every reason to resent The Younger Wife who's coming on the scene; their father is still married to their mother, now in a care facility for dementia, but plans to divorce her--which leads to the spilling of numerous toxic secrets (250,000-copy first printing). In the latest from the New York Times best-selling Pinborough, has-it-all heroine Emma Averell is beginning to suffer from Insomnia, which she fears may presage a descent into the insanity that destroyed her own mother's life (75,000-copy first printing). In the best-selling, award-winning Reich's Once a Thief, Simon Riske must prove that the Ferrari he's restored and sold for nine figures is not a fake, which brings him in contact with Anna Bildt, whose Swiss banker father has been blown up by a car bomb (75,000-copy first printing). In Rollins's Kingdom of Bones, postponed from March and September 2021, humans have become dullards while flora and fauna are suddenly ascendant; perhaps evolutionary forces have spun out of control, but it could be some fiendish plan (250,000-copy first printing). Letty Davenport, the smart, stubborn daughter of Sandford standby Lucas Davenport, becomes The Investigator, sent by her U.S. senator boss to figure out who's profiting from the theft of Texas crude oil--and why.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 10, 2022
In this appealing domestic suspense novel from bestseller Hepworth (The Good Sister), Pamela Aston’s two adult daughters, Tully and Rachel, are already reeling at the swiftness of the Melbourne, Australia, homemaker’s deterioration with early-onset Alzheimer’s when their cardiac surgeon father, Stephen, blindsides them with another bombshell—his plan to divorce Pam, who’s soon moved to a nursing home, and marry interior designer Heather Wisher, who’s younger than either sister. Further shocks await Rachel, a gorgeous plus-size baker who by her own account eats her feelings, as well as Tully, the always anxious mother of two little boys, as they try to figure out how seriously to take Pam’s occasional utterances suggesting that life with Stephen may have had a darker side. Meanwhile, the surprisingly sympathetic Heather starts to question her wedding plans—and possibly her sanity—now that she’s living with Stephen full-time. The toxic secrets each woman has been hiding, a surprise romance, and the small fortune Rachel discovers in her mother’s hot water bottle nicely complicate the fast-moving plot. This often funny and affecting outing should win Hepworth new fans. Agent: Rob Weisbach, Rob Weisbach Creative Management.

February 1, 2022
Pamela Aston isn't locked in the attic like Bertha Rochester in Jane Eyre, but she has been confined in a care facility for dementia. Her husband, Stephen, divorces her to marry a woman younger than one of his daughters. Tully, his older daughter, is extremely neurotic and a kleptomaniac, and the younger one, Rachel, literally feeds her self-destructiveness with her fancy cake business. The bride-to-be, Heather, is a self-made woman, clearly trying too hard to disguise her unfortunate background. Her father is in prison for strangling her mother. Is that why her hands are always shaking? Everyone in this story is impulsively dangerous to themselves and everyone around them, Stephen included, and they are sitting on a powder keg of toxic secrets. A warped tale, moving back and forward in time, full of "what is really happening here?" moments, Hepworth's seventh offering (after The Good Sister, 2021) is perfect for fans of her fellow Australian writers, as it boasts Jane Harper's multilayered characters and Liane Moriarty's wealthy suburban world saturated with lies and deceit.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With each domestic thriller, best-selling Hepworth shines brighter and draws in more readers.

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Starred review from April 18, 2022

Hepworth's latest novel (following The Good Sister) begins at the wedding of Stephen Aston, a respected heart surgeon in South Australia, and the much younger Heather Wisher. It seems perfect--surrounded by Stephen's daughters Rachel and Tully, family, friends, even his ex-wife, Pamela--until, just after the ceremony, there is a scream, a thud, and the celebrant emerges pale and bloody. A series of flashbacks from the points of view of Heather, Rachel, and Tully reveal shocking secrets that unravel the ersatz perfect family and threaten a carefully constructed fa�ade that someone may be willing to do anything to protect. Hepworth weaves the struggles of dementia, sexual assault, anxiety, and domestic abuse into the lives of realistic, likable characters that readers will be rooting for. VERDICT As much a mystery as a character study of three young women coping with love, loss, and trauma while struggling with the discovery of being deceived by the one they count on most. This title will appeal to fans of Jamie Brenner, Jodi Picoult, and Celeste Ng.--George Lichman

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 8, 2021
Readers won’t be shocked to learn that Sally Hepworth’s new novel The Younger Wife features a May–December romance between a younger woman and an older man, and the effects the relationship has on his family. The structure is well done, following the story from the points of view of three women: the younger soon-to-be-wife, Heather, lonely and looking for security; her fiance’s oldest daughter, Tully, living an upwardly mobile life but with a dangerous secret; and Rachael, the youngest daughter, a successful baker making wedding cakes and avoiding all romance of her own. Bypassing cliche, Hepworth’s narrative choices allow the reader to better understand the interloper and witness how a shared generation means that Heather, Rachael and Tully have much in common—and how the ensuing domestic noir mystery ties them even closer together. The Younger Wife is thoroughly engrossing, pulling the reader along at a breakneck pace and exposing each character’s flaws and challenges, secrets and strengths, and how these have affected their relationships. However, I was left deeply unsettled by Hepworth’s choices for the ending, particularly as it relates to contemporary politics, policing and the ways in which women are and are not believed. The structure, characters and plot of this novel were enough to create narrative tension, pace and an engrossing read; the final twist left me feeling sour and unsafe.    Kate Cuthbert is program manager at Writers Victoria.