The First Wife

By: Erica Spindler

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

As a child, Bailey Browne dreamed of a knight in shining armor swooping in to rescue her and her mother. As she grows older, those dreams transform, becoming ones of a mysterious stranger who will sweep her off her feet and whisk her away from her ordinary existence. Then, suddenly, there he is.

Despite the 10-year difference in their ages, her working class upbringing and his of privilege, Logan Abbott and Bailey fall deeply in love. Marriage quickly follows. But when Logan brings her home to his horse farm in Louisiana, a magnificent estate on ninety wooded acres, her dreams of happily-ever-after begin to unravel. A tragic family history she knew nothing about surfaces, plus whisperings about the disappearance of his first wife True, and rumors about the women from the area who have gone missing - and when another woman disappears, all signs point to her husband's involvement.

At first Bailey ignores the whispers, even as circumstantial evidence against Logan mounts. But finally, Bailey must make a choice: believe what everyone says - or bet her life on the man she loves, but is realizing she hardly knows. From the author of Justice for Sara, Erica Spindler's The First Wife is a thrilling new novel that will have you gasping every minute.

©2014 Erica Spindler (P)2014 Macmillan Audio

Good Suspense, Okay Narration

Erica Spindler writes reliably good suspense. They're great beach reads with compelling story lines and "The First Wife" is no exception. The characters were well developed, quirky and interesting. I did guess the perpetrator about halfway through the book, but I used the process of elimination to do it so I don't think that's a reflection on Ms. Spindler's writing or story development. It's probably more likely that I read too many suspense novels!

I have listened to several Tavia Gilbert books and I think this is going to be my last. I think she's a tremendously gifted voice actress but time and again her dramatic choices lean heavily towards "distress" on the part of the heroine when the situation or character may not warrant it. In this case, I think Bailey is written as a very strong woman but Ms. Gilbert voices her as an alarmed, frightened damsel pretty much from the start. There were many opportunities to use other inflections - anger, sarcasm, disbelief, but time and again Ms. Gilbert's default was whiny fear when it came to Bailey. Then when Bailey finally did fall apart, it lacked the dramatic punch of a strong character giving in to the situation because we'd heard her whining for the past six hours already.

Erica Spindler is definitely a winner! Tavia Gilbert has all the right stuff to be one, too, but falls short. Please don't let the genre influence your dramatic choices, let the dialogue do that.