The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

Imagine you found a letter written by your very much alive husband to be opened in the event of his death.

 Would you open it?

So, imagine it was you that found the letter, what would you do?  That's the question that kept popping into my head all the way through this book.   How many of us could put the letter to one side, not open it?  How many ........ really?

The Husband's Secret is the fifth novel from Australian author Liane Moriarty, and the first of her books that I've read.  It will be published here in the UK by Penguin on 29 August 2013.

Although I found the first one hundred or so pages of the book quite slow, this becomes one of those compelling page-turners the further into the story you get.  
Celia Fitzpatrick and her husband John Paul have the sort of perfect life that glossy magazines sell as the ultimate aim.  Happily married, both of them with careers that pay well, three beautiful and healthy daughters, a swimming pool and lots of friends.  Celia is the epitome of organisation, her kitchen is arranged down to the last tea-bag, she sits on committees, she helps people .... she is happy.   And then she finds that letter, and slowly and gradually her world crumbles around her.

This is not just Celia's story, it is also the story of two other women; Rachel and Tess. Seemingly unconnected at the start, it soon becomes clear that these three women are linked together by some tragic circumstances.

Liane Moriarty seems to effortlessly draw the reader into her characters lives, and I began to really care about each of them, at times I didn't particularly like them all, at times I would have liked to give them a shake, but I never grew tired of them and always wanted to know what would happen next.

Cleverly using fairly short snappy chapters, often with a cliff-hanger end sentence, leaves the reader desperate to know what will happen next.

The epilogue is stunning and is the perfect way to end what is a story of secrets and how they can change your world.  

I enjoyed The Husband's Secret very much and will most definitely look out Liane Moriarty's earlier novels.

My thanks go to Real Readers for sending my copy of The Husband's Secret for review.

Liane Moriarty

Liane Moriarty is the author of four novels, Three Wishes, The Last Anniversary, What Alice Forgot and The Hypnotist's Love Story all of which were published successfully around the world and translated into seven languages.  Writing as L.M. Moriarty, she is also the author of the Space Brigade series for children.  Liane lives in Sydney with her husband, son and daughter.  You can find out more about Liane's books at her website www.lianemoriarty.com