Two Dead Wives
Grade : C+

Ever finish a book and wonder what the heck you just read? I had such a response upon completing Two Dead Wives – which is the follow-up to the author’s other recent release, Woman Last Seen. When I selected this book for review, I had no idea that was the case – neither author nor publisher bills this book as a ‘sequel’ – because of that, this review contains spoilers for the first volume in the series.

DCI Clements is keeping an open (the unkind might call it ‘empty’) mind when it comes to the case of missing bigamist Kylie Gillingham aka Leigh Fletcher/Kai Janssen. When the apartment where Kylie had been held prisoner was discovered, it became clear the woman had not just absconded from her dual lives but had been forcibly taken and abused. Evidence suggests the person responsible was someone close to the case since Kylie was moved only hours before the police found the hideyhole she was held in. Conventional wisdom says it must have been one of the husbands who murdered her. Many would add that the woman had it coming, given the pain and embarrassment Kylie had put both men through, and Clements’ partner/subordinate, Constable Tanner, is certainly convinced of that. Initially, Tanner had been focused on Mark Fletcher, husband number one, the suburban father of two sons whom Kylie, in her guise as Leigh, had helped raise, but Tanner now suspects the second, Daan Janssen. Kylie met and married the wealthy Janssen a few years into her marriage with Mark, identifying herself as Kai to the rich, generous foreigner. Daan, with his not-so-discreet hookups, supercilious demeanor, and thoroughly unhelpful attitude, makes for a very likely suspect. And the evidence - the proximity of where Kylie was held to his home, a receipt in his apartment, and items with his fingerprints on found in her prison - certainly seem to indicate he’s their man. However, Daan went home to his rich Dutch family at the start of the investigation, which was also at the beginning of the pandemic. He is under house arrest in the Netherlands and can’t return to England due to the restrictions on air travel. Clements isn’t thrilled with the situation, but she is savvy enough to know that everything could be coincidental, and none of it, in her mind, is a certain predictor of guilt. Since no body has been found, she continues to search for the absent Kylie/Leigh/Kai, hopeful that there will be a happy ending to the whole sordid mess.

After finding out all this, we make a PoV switch to a young woman who seemingly has nothing to do with the case. Stacie is so lucky. A brain cancer survivor, she could easily be weathering the pandemic in some shabby apartment, unsure how to take care of herself. Instead, she is living with her retired physician father in a seaside cottage. While the greater world, with its COVID concerns, is especially scary to someone with a compromised immune system, the fresh sea air that enters their windows night and day and their isolated slice of the beach are proving to be very healing for her. She just wishes she could remember something, anything about her life prior to the moment she woke in this unfamiliar house to find a stranger calling himself her father.

I can’t tell you much about the convoluted plot of this story beyond the above because it's all meant to be a mystery till near the end. The previous book ended with us knowing just what happened to Kylie and why, while the perpetrator stepped neatly into one of the lives she had left behind. Clements, however, is not privy to the information the reader has, and is still actively searching for the missing woman several months down the road. We find this out at the start of the story, and I could only wonder how this was possible given the usual restrictions of budgets and man-hours that limit the police. Plus, the evidence against Daan is pretty damning and wouldn’t seem to merit further investigation.

Woman Last Seen had stretched my suspension of disbelief almost to the breaking point, and Two Dead Wives pushed me way past that. A lot of the police work is too convenient to be realistic, and there are twists at the end that are ludicrous.

The only two truly likable characters in the narrative are Kylie’s stepsons, Ollie and Seb. Ollie had been difficult with his stepmother prior to her disappearance, refusing to call her mom anymore and referring to her instead as Leigh (the name she went by in that life), and he now carries the guilt of wondering if his teen angst drove her to bigamy. In typical teen fashion, he acts even more surly to express his remorse and anxiety. Seb refuses to accept his stepmother is dead and believes she will come home to him, which is stressful for Mark and Fiona, the family friend who has moved in with them to help them through both the stress of the pandemic and Kylie/Leigh’s loss. The boys are a treasure who deserve better than the adults they’ve been given.

The most difficult part of this story is the author trying to redeem the irredeemable. The implication is that Kylie did what she did because, as a step-parent, she had no legal standing with the kids. She no longer loved Mark but wanted desperately to keep the boys in her life, so she half-assed it by spending part of the week with them and part of the week with the man she loved, Daan. However, we learn that Mark would have been very happy to share custody if that was what the kids wanted. I also couldn’t accept the reasoning offered. It was made clear Kylie was the main caregiver, but that seemed unlikely given her absences. Mark would have had to share the responsibilities - this isn’t a case of weekend parenting like in a divorce when the dad can get away with putting the onus on primary custody mom. Mark would have had to make sure the kids were fed, clothed and in school for half the week at the very least. So he couldn’t have been as irresponsible and laid back as the author tries to imply.

At another point, one of our suspects places the boys in extreme danger and then is made to seem caring when he risks himself to save them. What??? They were fine until he shoved them into harm's way, so no, that didn’t work for me either.

Two Dead Wives is a train wreck of a book. You will want to look; you almost won’t be able to help yourself as the author’s excellent prose sucks you in and makes you wonder how it will all end. But when you’re finished you will be slightly embarrassed to have been gawking at such a tragedy and realize the time you lost to it wasn’t well spent. If you read book one and want more closure, by all means, pick this up. I would advise others to give both of them a miss.

Reviewed by Maggie Boyd
Grade : C+
Book Type: Mystery

Sensuality: Subtle

Review Date : December 26, 2023

Publication Date: 12/2023

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Maggie Boyd

I've been an avid reader since 2nd grade and discovered romance when my cousin lent me Lord of La Pampa by Kay Thorpe in 7th grade. I currently read approximately 150 books a year, comprised of a mix of Young Adult, romance, mystery, women's fiction, and science fiction/fantasy.
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