Rose Yates hasn't lived in New Hampshire since she was a teen—so returning to her father's house at age 37 as a new widow, with her 11-year-old son Max, looks like trauma from the start. Carter Wilson quickly makes it clear that Rose doesn't blame herself for her husband's death, which has been ruled accident verging on suicide (pills and alcohol). But something terrible happened when she was growing up in Bury, New Hampshire, and readers won't know the details until very late in the book. Still, the guilt that permeates Rose is so powerful that on Max's first day of school, when she gets a call to come pick him up at mid day because he has threatened a girl in his class, she's already got a mantra that won't cease: It's all my fault.
Wilson turns THE DEAD HUSBAND into relentless suspense by setting next to Rose's voice an alternative point of view, that of an obviously nice and smart Wisconsin detective who's caught a whiff of the too-quick processing of Rose's husband's death. Colin Pearson doesn't necessarily want to pin Rose for murder (though she can't help feeling he does), but he knows something's off.
Colin went with his gut, knowing there was something. There was something about Bury. if not outright malevolent, then at least mysterious. Suspicious. There are no perfect communities. Every town has a stain.
When Colin's research takes him back to the town's one serious crime of the past, a missing boy, he cuts across the desperate route that Rose Yates is already racing along. Manipulated by her father, tormented by her sister, and unable to protect Max effectively, Rose needs Colin as an ally. But is that even possible, considering what happened in Bury, so long ago?
This dark thriller will keep readers on edge all the way through, with a tight plot and macabre and memorable family drama. The book's final twist shows exactly how the past and present intersect, with terrible consequences. Don't read this one for a happy ending. That said—you won't easily forget what Rose both reveals and discovers, at a very high price. [From Poisoned Pen Press, publishing on May 4.]
PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.
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