Title: The Last Wife
Author: Matt McGregor
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Pages: 283
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Olivia Yates, an artist forced to make a living as a waitress, and stuck in an abusive relationship with boyfriend Damian, is rescued from her pitiable life by Lachlan Gibson, handsome, charming, kind and rich. They fall in love, marry and move to his palatial home.
Very soon, Olivia realizes that being married to Lachlan isn’t quite as wonderful as she had imagined. For one, Lachlan has all sorts of rules that he expects his wife to follow. He chooses her clothes, insists on her dyeing her hair blonde. What could he possibly mean by this controlling attitude?
And then there is the manner in which the neighbours seem to treat her, calling her a gold-digger who has seduced him into marrying her.
As Olivia digs deeper, she discovers the secret he is hiding and wonder what horrible fate is in store for her.
I found Olivia to be extremely naïve. While she is no gold-digger, she does in fact let herself be swayed into making decisions based on her comfort, even though she doesn’t really know Lachlan all that well.
Olivia fit the character trope very well. Friendless, she latches on to the first person who is nice to her.
There were a lot of questions left unanswered, even after the conclusion. Why does the neighbour, Sylvia Woodhouse, get so angry on hearing the name, Gibson? What experiences did the little boy next door have with Lachlan’s first wife?
What was the rationale behind Lachlan wanting what he did? Why did the other antagonist act as they did? The explanation given is wholly unconvincing.
The climax was packed with action but an understanding of why the characters acted as they did was missing.
On the whole, the story was predictable. If you’ve read thrillers in this genre, it’s easy to tell which way the story will go.
(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)
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