The Innocent Wife

By: Amy Lloyd

Narrated by: Lorelei King, Christina Cole

Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's Summary

You Love Him.

You Trust Him.

So Why Are You So Scared?

Twenty years ago, Dennis Danson was arrested and imprisoned for the brutal murder of a young girl. Now he's the subject of a true-crime documentary that's whipping up a frenzy online to uncover the truth and free a man who has been wrongly convicted.

A thousand miles away in England, Samantha is obsessed with Dennis's case. She exchanges letters with him, and is quickly won over by his apparent charm and kindness to her. Soon she has left her old life behind to marry him and campaign for his release.

When the campaign is successful and Dennis is freed, however, Sam begins to discover new details that suggest he may not be quite so innocent after all.

But how do you confront your husband when you don't want to know the truth?

The winner of the Daily Mail First Novel Competition, Amy Lloyd's The Innocent Wife is gripping psychological suspense from a brilliant new voice in crime fiction.

©2018 Amy Lloyd (P)2018 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

You’ll probably like it a lot or hate it

I’ll start with the narration. I enjoyed the narrator for the main character. The narration for the voice of the guy annoyed me greatly, both the sound and the fake accent. It was just over-the-top country hick and not very believable.

I almost stopped this book and returned it within the first 20 minutes, thinking it just wasn’t for me because it focuses on a main character who develops an obsession with a guy in prison for murder, and I can’t relate to that type of person. Finding nothing else in my collection at the moment to listen to, I decided to try it again and see if I became interested. I did eventually, and continued to listen. Although I could not relate to and did not particularly like any of the characters, especially the main one whom I considered incredibly stupid, the story drew me in.

There is a fair amount of suspense, and though I was reasonably certain about each character’s guilt and innocence, (and it turns out I was correct), I would’ve rather seen the story go in a bit of a different direction. It gets gruesome at times and there is pretty common use of the F word, which I find unnecessary but extremely popular now.

This isn’t a feel good book and I regret listening to it, because it did nothing for me except make me feel a bit down. I did not particularly care for the ending either, though things were resolved for the most part. I did not see any growth whatsoever in any of the characters, especially the main female, who was short on maturity and brains, and made one bad decision after another throughout the book. I realize there are people out there just like her, but I don’t care to read about them.

I think the author did a fairly good job of creating suspense and not giving away the ending, and I think quite a few people will enjoy it. I gave it four stars because of that, but it wasn’t for me.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Totally binge worthy

I binge listened to this book straight through. I was so excited to finally get another good book after a long dry spell. The narrators were both really good too. I won't bore with a re synopsis. The only thing that was both fascinating but also frustrating was the ingenue of the story is so pathetic. She was so sad and needy that you just wonder if a person like that could really exist. But all in all it was a really good book.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great read, but....

God, some women are so desperate. I cringed so many times because of the raw honest, reality of this young woman’s behavior...it was slightly depressing but very entertaining.
Stellar narration.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Infuriating

This story was infuriating. I’ve never seen a heroine so sad and pathetic. I was hoping for a more powerful ending. That being said, I did binge listen in two days. It was enthralling, just wish the ending wasn’t so bad. It reminded me of Gone Girl.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Meh

The premise was interesting but the characters were too flat to deliver. The story fell apart without strong characters to give plausibility to the plot turns. I found myself not connecting with any of the players because they felt like cardboard cutouts ... pure stereotypes. I really wanted to like it.

And why bother with the massive talent of Lorelei King to deliver just a few lines of narration? Such a strange choice to make.

Unlikeable characters

I am over the mentally broken-down female protagonist in the thriller genre. The main characters were unlikeable. The story premise was interesting but not much happened other than the coming together of two incredibly dysfunctional people. One being a possible sociopath or psychopath and the other the emotionally brittle female protagonist who was not fully developed enough for us to understand the why behind her low self esteem and neediness. Anyway it left me feeling depressed and just ready for it all to be over so I didn’t have to spend anymore time with these people.

disappointing

if you can overlook the innocent wife's stupidity, the story is fairly gripping, much like a lifetime movie.

Great reading, weak, unstable, twisted female lead

The reading was done very well. The story was new and interesting twists. But, I can not stand a snivelling, weak woman. Unfortunately, there was more to her then that. In the end, I found her to be just as reprehensible as the murderer was. Maybe that was the point? I prefer to read about womens strength, emotional intelligence, who know they're own value.

Predictable

The narration was good for the main part of the books but the accents used for other characters were overdramatized and painful to listen to.

The plot was interesting but was very predictable, every clue you picked up throughout on ended up to be true which was disappointing that there wasn’t really any true plot twist that you didn’t see coming. But maybe that was the twist, you spend the whole book trying to figure out what the twist is only for there not to be one?

The main character is a let down who’s insecurity and desperation is nauseating at times and never redeems herself.

Overall I listened to it in two days bc I had a long road trip. It kept my interest during the story but I was left very disappointed at the end.

Awesome book!!

This book was intriguing! It hooked me and reeled me in!! Great story! It’s left me wanting more!