His First Wife

By: Sue Watson

Narrated by: Polly Edsell

My perfect man is married. And his wife is missing. Can I really trust him—or am I next?

Sophie wasn’t expecting to find love in Sicily. But then she sees him: Emilio, a professor who works at the university where she is teaching for the summer. He’s kind, intelligent, funny, exciting and deliriously unpredictable…

…maybe perfect.

But paradise quickly turns to purgatory as she uncovers the haunting disappearance of Emilio’s first wife. And when she senses a shadowy character following her, watching her every move, Sophie starts to question her grip on reality. Is she being paranoid, or is nothing about her new life really what it seems?

As further shocking revelations about Emilio’s past surface, Sophie knows one thing for certain: someone is trying to warn her away from him. But is that someone just jealous, or is Sophie caught in a lethal trap?

©2025 by Sue Watson. (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Slow burn

It kept my interest enough. Secrets. Lies, and classic who done it? Emilio was forgettable and the author did not set up his character enough to make him likeable nor unlikable. He was an after thought.

storyline

Could just be me, but I didn't like how sometimes the audio sound/volume changed. It was like it was spliced in.
Storyline was entertaining. Had you guessing who the culprit was.

2 stars

His First Wife by Sue Watson was okay. From the start, I never saw the appeal of Emilio or why Sophie was nearly obsessed with him. I also found quite a few editing errors that took me out of the story. There were several slightly eerie points that I enjoyed, but overall I found the characters annoying. Sophie is insecure and assumes without reason. Her secret is predictable and extremely underwhelming. Emilio is bland and boring, and Sabrina is a caricature of a spoiled brat.

Polly Edsell is a pretty good narrator. However, there’s a metallic echo to her voice, numerous background noises, and the re-recording edits are obvious and distracting.

Just Ok

Not her best work. I very seldom dislike every character in a book, but this was the exception

What?

Were we supposed to sympathize with the main character? Why spend so much time on an annoying friend who then had little to do with the plot? Wtf was that ending? Did the narrator really need to try for a Sicilian male accent? They lived on an ash field? Just so weird…I ended up being annoyed.