Review: The Wife Deserved It

I love novellas, but fully acknowledge and recognize they're tricky to pull off - especially in suspense. The author has to successfully build the tension, twists, red herrings, all the stuff that makes a great suspense novel and convincingly deliver it in a smaller package. A couple things working in Darby Kane's favor with The Wife Deserved It are her background in romance (where she wrote a handful of novellas along with short, snappy Harlequin Intrigues under her other name, HelenKay Dimon) and her background as a lawyer specializing in contested custody cases.  All this to say that she probably didn't have to go deep into her imagination to come up with the idea for this book, and boy howdy, it's a humdinger.

Reid Cavanagh thinks he's the smartest guy in the room. He's fit, he's handsome and he's also a narcissistic, whiny man baby who has decided that tonight is the night he's going to murder his wife, Anna. Anna, who has "unrealistic" expectations about family, money, and a white picket fence life who is now dragging him through a divorce that is all her fault. Because certainly it's not HIS fault. Well, he's had enough. He's been laying the groundwork for weeks and tonight is the night.  However once he's inside his former home, stalking his wife, cracks in his perfect plan start to show. It's not going exactly how he expected and then the bomb goes off. Everything Reid thought he knew, everything he planned for, yeah turns out Reid doesn't know shit. 

This story is only 117 pages long and the audiobook is a speedy 2.5 hours. To give anymore details or say anything more about the story is a giant honking spoiler. Half the fun is the twist Kane throws in as Reid is stalking through his former home, in the dark, with rain pouring down outside. The tension starts on page one and doesn't let up for the entirety of the story. And the dialogue? Fantastic. It's more than a little satisfying to hear Reid get verbally slapped over the course of this story because Good Lord this guy is the Literal. Worst. That's what I tend to like about Kane's stories - disgusting, vile characters tend to get exactly what's coming to them and no, they don't fail up. It's bloody refreshing as I do my 1000 mile stare into our current hellscape timeline. 

I received an advanced copy of the audiobook and a word on that edition - it's a dual narrator extravaganza and I'm old school when it comes to audiobooks (I started listening back in the days of cassettes - excuse me while my bones crumble to dust). I just don't care for dual narrators, which seems to be the trend du jour these days. Eva Kaminsky is fine but I wasn't that wild about Johnathan McClain. To be fair, the character of Reid is angry and indignant for the entire story - and anger is hard to read convincingly. McClain tries, but it came off sounding strained and forced to me. He's not horrible, so it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story and as with all things audiobook narrators - mileage gonna vary.  Still, I would have much preferred to read this one I think, but I wasn't about to look a gift advanced copy of an audio edition in the mouth, so here we are.

I really liked this one a lot and I think even folks who aren't wild about novellas should give it a whirl because Kane keeps it tight and tense. It was perfect at this length, I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything, no dangling threads or I wish we got more of this or that. Just what the doctor ordered for my flailing reading mojo.

Final Grade = B+