The Wife Next Door by Amanda Brooke

It’s not just secrets buried in the garden next door...

Jane doesn’t know her new neighbours very well.

But she thought they were nice. She thought they were happy.

She was wrong.

First there’s the explosive rows. Then she catches one of them digging a grave- shaped trench in the garden.

When the truth emerges, someone would kill to cover their tracks...

About the author

Amanda Brooke is an internationally bestselling author. Her debut novel, Yesterday’s Sun, was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick and since then she has written eleven further books. Amanda lives in Merseyside with a cat called Spider, a dog called Mouse, and a laptop within easy reach.

Review

‘The Wife Next Door’ is an engaging look at how we don't really know what happens behind closed doors. This was a character-driven, slow burn of a book that allows the reader to be taken down meandering paths of what its truth and what is deception and manipulation.

When Janes moves back to her childhood home to care for her mum in her dying days she wasn't ready for the emotion and memories from her childhood. Whilst clearing out the house and getting it ready to put up for sale she gets to know her neighbours. They seem nice but then she hears an explosive row and begins to worry that history is starting to repeat itself. Then when she sees the husband digging a grave-shaped hole in the garden she begins to worry even more ...

I must say I was much more invested in Jane’s story and the flashbacks to the past than I was with Evan and Ashleigh’s story. Maybe because I worked out quite early where that side of the story was going. I just had more empathy for Jane and her horrendous flashbacks to her childhood and her father's abusive behaviour. I also quite enjoyed her Miss Marple-like sleuthing!

What I did appreciate is that the themes of abuse, both physical and mental, that are portrayed in this book come across as authentic and well-developed. The idea of keeping things hidden is certainly one that is true. It is clear that a lot of time and thought was poured into this story.

Let me know if you read this one.