Review: The English Wife by Lauren Willig

Genre: Historical Thriller

Rating: 4.0/5.0 stars

Main Takeaway: A riveting novel that has a little something for every kind, of reader. Highly recommend.

In Winter 1899, scandal hits Westchester elite society, the Van Duyvils, when Bayard Van Duyvil is found dead on the night of a party at his mansion, Illyria, and his English wife Annabelle goes missing, assumed to be drowned in the Hudson. The gossips of New York suspect Bayard killed his wife and then himself in grief, but Janie Van Duyvil refuses to believe what they say. In efforts to clear her brother’s name, Janie enlists the aide of New York reporter James Burke to uncover the truth about that dreadful night. As Janie and James unravel the past bit by bit, Janie begins to wonder whether Annabelle was truly who she said she was, and whether the truth may be too ugly to bear.

The English Wife has a little bit of everything – history, romance, mystery, thrilling suspense, lies and deceit. I was pulled in to this novel from the very beginning, and as Bayard’s and Annabelle’s pasts are slowly revealed to the reader, the pages turned themselves. The English Wife is suspenseful, engaging and romantic, full of plot twists that kept me riveted straight through to the very end and a rich character development that made me feel Georgie’s pain and Janie’s resentment right alongside them. What I expected to be an historical fiction turned out to be one of my favorite thrillers of the year so far!