Ah, Liane Moriarty redeems herself after the quite terrible The Hypnotist’s Love Story with the stellar The Husband’s Secret. It’s very twisty and interesting and even though I figured out “the secret” pretty quickly, she spends just as much time discussing the repercussion as she does the secret itself, so it stays fascinating until the end.
And man, are there repercussions.
“None of us ever know all the possible courses our lives could have and maybe should have taken. It’s probably just as well. Some secrets are meant to stay secret forever. Just ask Pandora.”
Cecilia Fitzpatrick finds a letter in an old box belonging to her husband — a letter that instructs her to read it after his death. Immensely curious, she asks him about it — he suddenly acts incredibly strange and begs her not to read it. Meanwhile, we have two other main characters to focus on. Tess, whose marriage has just fallen apart, prompting her to return home to her mother, along with her young son. And Rachel, whose life has similarly been shaken by the news from her son and daughter-in-law, saying they’re moving to New York and taking her beloved grandson along. Moriarty weaves the stories of these three women together, and we learn how they’re all bound by Cecilia’s husband’s secret — and how knowing what it is will change everything all over again. There’s a lot of tension and unknowns, and the last portion of the story just blew me away.
