The English Wife

A Novel

By: Lauren Willig

Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik

Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

From New York Times best-selling author Lauren Willig comes a scandalous audiobook set in the Gilded Age, full of family secrets, affairs, and murder. The English Wife is high drama and sure to impress listeners everywhere.

Annabelle and Bayard Van Duyvil live a charmed life in New York: He's the scion of an old Knickerbocker family, she grew up in a Tudor house in England, they had a fairy-tale romance in London, they have three-year-old twins on whom they dote, and he's recreated her family home on the banks of the Hudson and named it Illyria. Yes, there are rumors that she's having an affair with the architect, but rumors are rumors, and people will gossip. But then Bayard is found dead with a knife in his chest on the night of their Twelfth Night Ball; Annabelle goes missing, presumed drowned; and the papers go mad.

Bay's sister, Janie, forms an unlikely alliance with a reporter to try to uncover the truth, convinced that Bay would never have killed his wife, that it must be a third party, but the more she learns about her brother and his wife, the more everything she thought she knew about them starts to unravel. Who were her brother and his wife, really? And why did her brother die with the name George on his lips?

©2017 Lauren Willig (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"A dark, romantic mystery full of twists and turns." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Willig's audiobook, set in Gilded Age New York and London, is a mix of romance, mystery, and murder. Narrator Barrie Kreinik is a perfect fit for the mix of British and American characters...Kreinik's reading is slow-paced, allowing the tension to build as the story unfolds." (AudioFile Magazine)

"The English Wife is atmospheric, romantic and heart-breaking.... The enthralling story, coupled with Barrie Kreinik's outstanding narration, makes it an audiobook I'd definitely recommend to anyone looking to enjoy an intricate, well-constructed and character-driven mystery." (AudioGals)

Loose ends

I was entertained by the story and characters but it is never explained why the chimney blew up.

really good mystery.

finally, a mystery I did not figure out in the first chapter. This book surprised me til the end.

Left with some missing pieces

Although I enjoyed the time period and the colorful scenes, I have reservations about some of the characters. Clearly the author is well acquainted with Shakespeare and the classics, but her portrayal of the mother was far from subtle and seemed flat. She was never allowed to be anything other than a gorgon, and very unsympathetic. With so many ends left loose, the high drama of fire and young romance seems a bit trite. Why did Lacy leave so quickly when he still needed funds? Obviously the mother had to be removed from the scene for the young and ignored daughter to find herself. A bit trite and predictable but still well written enough to be entertaining.

Another great Willig mystery!

A book you have to follow closely to stay up on what's going on. There's a lot of switching back and forth between a period of 5 years but once you grasp it, it all comes together. Delightfully unpredictable ( except one couple who you knew would end up together) but I was shocked to find out who the murderer actually was in the end. The narration was excellent and portrayed the characters perfectly. Great mystery, tragic at times but gripping and entertaining!

Who can you trust?

This listen kept me fully engaged from start to finish! There are odd relationships, hints of betrayal, murder and possible abduction, family dysfunction and a strong protagonist trying to sort it all out. Definitely, you can count on needing to use your powers of deduction to keep ahead of the storyline on this one!

Riveting

Couldn't stop listening. So drama packed! This book is a must read for snow days.

I really liked it

I base my choices on reviews and this book had some mixed reviews. The first chapter or two were a bit hard to get into but then I was hooked. I liked the story and the narrator.

Very intense

The start of this story is a bit slow but if you stay with it you will find yourself stunned at the twists and turns it takes. Has lots of levels of development and interesting characters. Really enjoyed this story. The reader was great and easy to listen to.

Not sure what to call this… Turn of the century mystery romance?

I had high hopes of this when I started listening and it bore up fairly well most of the way, but a mediocre turn by the narrator and some pretty cliché-ridden writing/dialogue ultimately sunk the experience for me. Considering it at the end, I realize the writer is better with the mystery than she is with the romance. The thing is, when you are reading a story with somewhat heightened drama and romantic suspense, you expect the writer to tie things up fairly neatly at the end, which doesn’t happen here. Virtue triumphs, etc. (I expect no such thing from grittier tomes, but this was not one of those.) Spoiler alert: a rather nasty rapist goes unexposed and relatively unpunished, and the title character is whereabouts unknown at the end. Perhaps the author is imagining a sequel? I’m pretty sure I won’t be reading it. Oh, and the narrator? Too much acting in the narration portions. Decent accents, but some words mispronounced. Do these things get directed anymore?

Slow

Very, very slow. It was ok but lackluster for sure. I won’t be looking into anything else by this author. Narrator was wonderful though!