The First Wife

By: Jill Childs

Narrated by: Tamsin Kennard

Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's Summary

I moved closer to the little girl, afraid that our voices would be caught by the monitor. "What happened to you, Lucy? Can you tell me?"

When Sophie’s life falls apart, she accepts an invitation from a childhood friend, Caroline, to visit her family’s beautiful beach house, situated at the mouth of an isolated cove, miles from the nearest town. The silence is broken only by the rhythmic crash of the waves against the jagged black rocks below. 

But when Sophie arrives, she finds her friend much changed. Caroline - who used to be so warm and confident - is secretive and on-edge, spending long, unexplained hours away from her family. And then there’s Caroline’s little daughter Lucy - who stopped speaking soon after they moved in. Caroline assures Sophie that it’s only a phase, but Sophie thinks Lucy looks a little uncared for, a little afraid....

Then one night Sophie is woken by a scream and runs to find Lucy, out of bed and at the attic window, staring in terror at the view below. When Sophie goes to look, her blood runs cold....

What secrets hide behind closed doors in this isolated house by the sea? A compelling domestic drama from the USA Today best-selling author of Gracie’s Secret. Perfect for fans of Big Little Lies and The Couple Next Door.

©2020 Jill Childs (P)2020 Bookouture

Predictable, but good.

Entertaining. When a friend goes to visit an old friend after many years apart, she notices things aren't quite right.
Yes, if you love psych thriller you've read it variations of the theme before but I'm not going to take away from my rating just because I'm a jaded reader. It was well written and plenty entertaining. I enjoyed the excellent narration too.

Enjoyable, if not predictable, read

This story is verbose, intricately written and very good for the most part. I tend to get impatient when the plot tends to drone on. Overall the plot is good, the writing is good and the performance above average. This was a book I could put down and easily pick up again later. It was worth a credit, but I wish the editor had slashed through a lot of the unnecessary word play.

Sooooo Much Description

80% descriptions 20% story. This whole book was about descriptions of every single thing. A very small part of the book was actually a story. Very easy to figure it out. I would not recommend this book.

so so good!

I loved the characters, the story line, the setting. Absolutely everything was perfect! Narrator did an excellent job! I couldn't stop listening.

Don’t bother

Total joke of a story. I believed the caption from sunshine book club stating this was a page turner, couldn’t be further from the truth.

Great book

An excellent plot. Character personalities and motives are clear. If you enjoy domestic noir you will enjoy it!

great

loved it so many twists . kept me awake late at night to finish

Great!

Glad I decided to take a chance since the previous ratings weren't very positive. But I really enjoyed it, kept me listening for the whole day during lockdown. And I am pleased to discover a new author whose writing style I like (and doesn't annoy the reader/listener with the same repetitive words), and who provides an interesting and varied story with just the right amount of suspense to keep you hooked.

Entertaining

This was enjoyable though very obvious. At the beginning I didn’t think I could listen to this narrator but stuck with it, she was actually very good.

First Jill Childs I have listened too!

Brilliant. Totally hooked and great narration. Keeps you guessing right to the end. What a great writer!

Rather silly but enjoyable nonetheless

I read all of this book in one sitting! Addictive and gripping. However, as the story progressed, and especially towards the end, I was dumbfounded with the unbelievability of the plot. Really far fetched and frankly a little silly. Saying that I did rather enjoy it so am giving it four stars as it had me hooked and the narration was good,

Amazing

A must read captured the reader from the beginning the twists were just so amazing thank you Amazon for recommending from my reading history U just love this book

Not very plausible story

Not very plausible story but well written and very well read. I enjoyed it nevertheless.