The Happy Couple

By: Samantha Hayes

Narrated by: Ellie Heydon

Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

Me and Will. Will and Me. A perfect match. He said he would always be there for me, but it’s been a year since he drained his coffee, walked out the front door and vanished. 

Did he leave me? Or did something terrible happen? I’m scared someone finally found out about what happened on the drive home that night...

I lie awake at night trawling the internet for rental properties, desperate for an escape. Until I see my husband’s gorgeous face smiling back at me from a photograph on the fireplace in someone else’s home, and something inside of me snaps. 

At the house, I find no trace of him and the woman who lives there has no idea who I am. But I’m certain she’s hiding something behind the locked door upstairs. I know that if I want answers, I have to stay. 

You might think that what’s inside that room is the answer to all my questions and the end of all my pain. But it’s only the beginning… 

Nail-biting and completely gripping, The Happy Couple will make you question how well you really know the ones you love. Perfect listening for anyone who adored The Wife Between Us, The Girl on the Train or Gone Girl.  

©2020 Samantha Hayes (P)2020 Bookouture

THE HAPPY COUPLE

THEIS BOOK, ALONG WITH MANY MYSTERIES IVE READ. HAVE WEAK. WEAK WOMEN. FOR ONCE I WOULD LIKE TO READ A BOOK WITH STRONG WOMEN.

Spoiler Alert!

The ending was so far fetched and I likely would have rated this book higher, had JoJo made a rational, realistic choice. It was unsettling she did not even give a thought to Simon. Ugh, anyway, the plot was twisty indeed but when Suzanne locked JoJo and then Louise in the room, the reason was not given and was far-fetched because she was not "unhinged" as the author kept insinuating and then flipped a switch at the end and she and JoJo became besties. Louise's reaction, or lack thereof to the revelation and subsequent conflict was totally unrealistic, avoiding and refusing to even aknowledge her "best friend" and the utter betrayal she committed. "Friends since schoolmates," and not a single word neither in her defense or conformation and to say nothing made me want to chuck my phone out the window. So over it and not worth the money spent.

interesting

This was an interesting story in ways. It seemed like it was going the typical cheating husband and all that then it surprised me. I will say she kind of made a lot of presumptions with only a little bit of information. It made me roll my eyes more than a few times. Overall a pretty good read and a step above the typical British psychological thrillers I seem to be addicted to.

I never leave bad reviews...

I'm so disappointed at this book. very lengthy for nothing to happen and then the whole story line is at the end. Ridiculous ending. just very disjointed.

I didn’t hate the book but main character is shamefully annoying!

This is not the worst book that I have listened to. However, I have read many psychological thrillers with annoying main characters but this main character takes the cake! “Joe” is just so irritating, weak, and unrealistic. Eh! Self involved to the nth degree! Book is just fine; the pace is a bit slow. I didn’t hate it.

Waste of money

Big regret. This was seriously the most ridiculous story and ending ever. And I have listened to so many audio books, but this ending is so absurd..

Pitiful

The only redeeming thing about this book is the narrator. The book was a complete waste of time and money.

I Just Don’t Know

I just don’t know where to begin with this one. I was expecting so much more from the book after listening to the first few chapters but it fell short for me. The main character, Jo, is so in love with Will that it’s sad. Every bad thing the man does is excused by her. It’s very frustrating. This is also more of a drama than a thriller or mystery.

Really Bad!!

I am so tired of writers depicting the female characters as weak, clumsy, and nimble minded individuals. It was difficult to finish. What a waste of my time.

Stayed up all night to finish!

Suspenseful, entertaining, I truly enjoyed this one and looking forward to a follow up book.

okay storyline, weak at times.

I stuck with the book and it was ok , but the constant blasphemy was very offensive, don't think the writer recognizes that .

Kept me involved for days in lockdown

The Happy Couple is most pleasantly narrated by Ellie Heydon. She has a sweet, calm and attractive voice, but sadly isn't right when speaking as in a male character, as Simon or Will. She makes her voice hoarse and rough for them but it doesn't work. I wish the production team could insert a man's voice for those occasions. Simon is a smashing chap, strong and sensible, with no side, but he sounds like a twit.

The plot is full of twists and turns, sometimes I really wanted to shout at Jo, I wished she would wake up and stop being so silly and self centred. Slow, too, at times to think others, often strangely speaking her last thoughts out loud, definitely selfish and full of 'I want'. There are two sides to every story and we got them sorted by the end. I enjoyed it a lot, I am only nit picking about the voices really. Worth a listen!

Trys too hard to twist and turn

Crap male voice.
Book starts well but then escalates into ridiculousness. U wont guess the ending cos its crap.

Great; already downloaded another by the author

This listen was so well-written that I immediately downloaded another book by Samantha Hayes.

It combined the two elements I enjoy most in crime fiction - the early part laid down all the clues we needed to solve the mystery, and the final part was in the best tradition of domestic noir, with twists and surprises and an element of fear.

It's a four star for me rather than a five-star only because I personally didn't like the main character and narrator, Jo. She's just so tedious and whiny, and originally determined to make out that everything in her relationship was wonderful when, quite clearly, it was anything but.

However, you may not find her so irritating - some of my dislike, I'm sure, comes from my inbuilt class prejudice - she and her friends are a bit too middle class and entitled for my tastes, but I suspect that they wouldn't put off some others.

In any case, we don't have to like characters to love a book, and The Happy Couple is a great example of this. Samantha Hayes kept me reading, through Jo's whines about being abandoned by her husband, the bizarre decision she makes not to call her police liaison officer when she notices her husband's photos on a fireplace in a picture of a house available for housesitting, and through her weird choice not to even tell the friendly local police officer when she discovers the homeowner's obvious obsession with her missing husband.

I just kept on wondering, "What's happened in the car? Why's she so afraid to take it to the garage for a service? What or whom has she or her husband run over?" and those questions drove me forward through the narrative, guessing some of the answers correctly and some incorrectly. And the denouement was simply edge-of-the-seat stuff.

Looking forward to the next one, which, as I say, I've already downloaded, and happy to have discovered such a good new-to-me crime author.

Ridiculous

A completely ridiculous plot. Predictable characters, some awful dialogue and just incredibly boring. The main character in particular drones on and and has no personality. Disappointed.

Collapses at the end

This book will trick you into thinking it has a good storyline, and then dissepoint profoundly in the end. Dont bother

wow wow wow 👌 Not what I'd envisaged

fanbloomintastic... okay, so it's a bit far-fetched, but hey, it still captured my imagination. I really enjoyed it. It was a completely different ending to what I was expecting, and it worked well. Definitely a 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me!

Disappointed - totally far fetched and annoying

This had potential at the start but then it became so out there and far fetched that I was just annoyed listening. I was screaming at the main character as she was just so stupid and I can’t imagine anyone doing what she did and her friend too. No one is so dumb.

easy listening. a decent storyline.

Pleasant easy listening. Especially for a bedtime story. Read really well. With a decent storyline. And ends with quite a twist.

bizarre

Wasn't that keen on the plot. Well written and easy to listen to but the plot felt a bit bizarre.