NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Coming to Netflix! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY · PEOPLE MAGAZINE · MARIE CLAIRE · POPSUGAR · BUSTLE · SHEREADS · HELLOGIGGLES · and more! A woman is drawn into a mysterious web of secrets in this twisty whodunnit from New York Times bestselling author Mary Kubica Sadie and Will Foust have only just moved their family from bustling … and Will Foust have only just moved their family from bustling Chicago to a coastal island in Maine when their neighbor Morgan Baines is found dead in her home. The murder rocks their tiny coastal island, but no one is more shaken than Sadie.
But it’s not just Morgan’s death that has Sadie on edge. And as the eyes of suspicion turn toward the new family in town, Sadie is drawn deeper into the mystery of what really happened that dark and deadly night. But Sadie must be careful, for the more she discovers about Mrs. Baines, the more she begins to realize just how much she has to lose if the truth ever comes to light.
“Altogether unpredictable.” –Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author
Don’t miss Mary Kubica’s upcoming novel, Local Woman Missing, and look for her other pulse-pounding thrillers:
- The Good Girl
- Pretty Baby
- Don’t You Cry
- Every Last Lie
- When the Lights Go Out
more
Kubica ratchets up tension and intrigue in The Other Mrs. Her salacious, thoroughly mysterious characters bear the qualities we all crave in a thriller — seductive, seemingly unknowable, and altogether unpredictable.
I’ve been a big fan of Mary Kubica for ages, and I feel like The Other Mrs. is a leap forward for her, both in style and structure. This is a remarkable book, insidious and dark and elegantly plotted, with a wonderful ending that I just didn’t see coming. This one’s going to be brilliant on the screen.
The Other Mrs. is Mary Kubica’s most twisty, unpredictable and atmospheric thriller yet. Inscrutable, intriguing characters and a perfectly sinister setting create an insidious sense of dread that propels you to the very startling conclusion.
What a mind-blowing and twisted ride. About 3/4 of the way through, I thought I had figured out the big twist but boy was I wrong (and I absolutely love that I wasn’t able to completely figure it out). This is one of the creepiest antagonist’s I’ve read and one that will stay with me for a long time. I’m a huge fan of Mary Kubica and I think this was her best book yet. For a jaw-dropping psychological thriller, make sure to give this one a read.
This is Mary Kubica’s best book since her debt, THE GOOD GIRL. Wonderful atmosphere, amazing writing, a unique premise and pages that turn themselves. I predict this will be a big book of 2020! Put it on your to-read list!
The Other Mrs. is a psychological thriller with a murder mystery at the core. Dr. Sadie Faust and her husband Will, a professor, relocate to Maine when Will inherits his sister’s home. Will’s sister Alice, has committed suicide, leaving her old home, and her sixteen-year-old daughter Imogene behind. Maine is a huge adjustment, especially given the home is located on an island, the mainland only reachable by ferry. It’s winter and storms are common. Queue claustrophobic atmosphere. I’m not a fan of winter, but I do love reading books set during the season.
And then there is Imogene—bitter and resentful—who does everything in her power to make Sadie feel threatened and unwelcome. Sadie and Will have two other children, Otto, fourteen and awkward, and Tate, grade school age and a bundle of energy. Shortly after the Faust family moves into their new home, a neighbor woman is murdered. Thus, begins the mystery of who killed her and why.
The story unfolds through the viewpoints of three different characters—Sadie, a woman named Camille, and a young girl called Mouse. Chapters alternate between them, some more engrossing than others. There were several chapters mid-point where the story dragged, and I grew weary of Camille and Mouse’s narration (mostly because it’s told rather than shown), but Sadie’s chapters kept me thoroughly engrossed. As suspicion regarding the killer mounts, she pulls a few stunts that had me doing palm/forehead, but they’re forgiven in the overall tension of the book. Once past the middle bubble, I couldn’t read fast enough.
Between the setting with the plague of winter snow, the oppressive weight of Alice’s questionable suicide, and Imogene’s rebellious behavior, there’s a lot going on in this book in addition to a murder mystery.
I did figure out the main plot point early on, but the author peppered the story with enough curve balls to make me second guess myself repeatedly. And I do mean repeatedly. Eventually, my suspicions were proven right, but the connection to the murder and the killer’s motive came as a complete surprise. If you enjoy psychological thrillers that blur lines with domestic thrillers and murder mysteries, The Other Mrs. is well worth the read. 4.5 Stars from me.
Sinister and unsettling, with a dark, atmospheric heart, this thriller is absolutely captivating. With an elegant, cinematic style, a page-turning plot, and an almost palpable sense of menace exuding throughout, you can easily see why The Other Mrs is being made into a movie.
Starting over always seems like a good idea. Isolated islands are a perfect choice, until they’re not! Dark, atmospheric, and gripping.
A real mind trip! Didn’t see that twist coming at all.
I quickly found myself unable to figure out how the three stories in this book related to each other. Mary Kubica has crafted quite the addictive mystery thriller here because I did not start to put pieces together until more than half way through the story. The story is told by Sadie, a little girl nicknamed Mouse, and Camille, who appears to be the woman Will was with in Chicago while being unfaithful to Sadie. Sadie and her husband Will moved to Maine from Chicago. While in Chicago, the family experienced a couple of family issues and Will’s sister passing away leaving her house to Will was the perfect solution. With the house comes Will’s very angry and rebellious 16-year old niece. Imogene is pretty toxic, but in the end, she really surprised me. Their neighbor was murdered shortly after they move into the neighborhood, and Sadie pulls some pretty odd to me stuff as she tries to discover more about the murdered wife. As soon as the story starts also being told by husband, Will, the puzzle starts to come together in a shocking way. Great read.
Imagine you’re on an escalator with people you know and love and it starts going faster, which is scary, and then it’s speeding. Terrifying. The Other Mrs. is Mary Kubica’s best work yet.
A dead body, a remote island, a spooky house, and plenty of questionable characters…what’s not to love here? Suspicions swirl off the page, and the truth is revealed in twisty increments that will have you constantly rethinking who is the killer. Kubica cranks it up a notch with this one, a psychological thriller that will mess with your mind.
This psychological thriller moves in a manipulative way. It sets up the pieces, some a bit slow moving, some, I’ll admit, a bit not how real folk might act–BUT– I especially enjoyed the second half. Having the groundwork laid in the first half paved the way to unleash the mind game in the second.
For readers who like to walk into stories and hop on board, taking a page at a time without peaking at the end, or pausing to decide this or that will happen, this book will dazzle you.
I read a library copy of this book.
Never saw the end coming!
4.5
Loved this book in the end slow start but good in the end. One twist after other in the end of book bc of that it reached this high rating. I constantly had GONE GIRL vibe even though i haven’t read the book. And the twist I’ve constantly watched that twist multiple times so i was bored but it was best one out of all bc of details. Looking forward to watch it on netflix whenever it arrives.
This was a mind-bending thriller, twisting all of the clues and details. Even when I picked up some of the hints I wasn’t sure how Ms. Kubica was going to bring the story together. I loved how the story ended on a high, hopeful note.
Amazing read! Loved it!
The Other Mrs. was a great read by Mary Kubica. Sadie and Will moved to a small-town in Maine after Will’s sister died. Unfortunately even many miles away, Sadie isn’t able to escape the other Mrs. She left her daughter and home to the couple. Unfortunately their neighbor was found dead in her home and rocks the small-town. Sadie is lost in what happened that night after people start believing that it may have been one of them. She starts to get drawn into what happened and who is the culprit. I really enjoyed reading this book and can’t wait to read more by Mary Kubica.
In The Other Mrs., bestselling author Mary Kubica ramps up the dramatic tension with an intense examination of Sadie Foust’s psyche.
Sadie, a physician, has moved from Chicago to an isolated little island along the rugged Maine coastline with her husband Will, a handsome and charismatic college professor, fourteen-year-old son Otto, and Tate, who is just seven. In her first-person narration, Sadie reveals that she is still reeling from Will’s infidelity, as well as “what happened in Chicago — not just the affair alone, but all of it, everything . . .” About the latter, she is vague. But she is attempting to settle into a new routine in her position at a local clinic and adjust to life in the dreary home Will inherited from his sister following her suicide. And then there’s Imogen, the goth teenager who is angry, resentful, and inspires fear in Sadie with her erratic behavior. Imogen’s presence exacerbates Sadie’s struggle to manage her anxiety and re-establish a relationship of trust with Will.
Kubica intersperses Sadie’s dialogue with a third-person narration detailing unfolding events, as well as the first-person dialogues of a little girl nicknamed Mouse,who details the abuse to which she has been subjected, and another female voice, Camille. Camille claims to have been Sadie’s roommate, and expounds on her love for Will, describing their extramarital affair. It is clear that she is still obsessed with Will. She bemoans her status as “the other woman” and describes some of her sessions with a psychiatrist who encouraged her to discontinue their trysts. She is nearby, having “convinced” herself to follow Will to Maine and is living in an empty house near the Fousts. She acknowledges engaging in behavior that has frightened Sadie, jealous of the fact that Will loves Sadie more. Still, convinced that she is prettier than Sadie, Camille brags that “if I wanted to, I could do my hair like hers, I could dress like her, pass myself off as Mrs. Foust. Convince others to believe that I was Will’s wife, his chosen one. If I wanted to.” Her endgame isn’t clear.
Sadie finds her new job challenging and must also deal with Otto being bullied at school (again), as well as mysterious events at home. As the investigation into Morgan’s murder proceeds, disturbing evidence implicates Sadie. But she knows she is innocent and becomes desperate to prove her innocence.
In Kubica’s capable hands, the book’s setting is critical to the story’s success and serves as another character in the book — ominous, foreboding, and stifling. The tale of deception is replete with shocking plot developments and twists that keep the action moving forward at an unrelenting pace, aided by the alternating narrations. As always, Kubica’s story is deftly plotted and flawlessly executed. In fact, it is not until the jaw-dropping conclusion reveals what has actually transpired — and it differs from at least one wholly unreliable narration — that Kubica’s ingenuity and creativity are fully appreciable. Her characters are richly and credibly developed and, at least in the case of Sadie, surprisingly sympathetic. Whether Sadie is a victim is a question readers may ponder long after finishing the book. Kubica’s original take on a story line device that fiction writers have employed frequently is spectacularly successful.
With each successive publication, Kubica’s writing has gotten better and it can be credibly argued that The Other Mrs. is her best book yet. Atmospheric, eerie, and compelling, The Other Mrs. examines family secrets, manipulation, and the lasting impact of traumatic events, and further cements Kubica’s reputation as a master writer of psychological thrillers.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book.
This novel is a must read by anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers! The characters are engaging and well developed. You feel for the characters and what they are experiencing. The story follows a family consisting of Sadie, Will, Otto and Tat who move from Chicago to an island off of Maine to “start over” and take over the care of Will’s niece, Imogen, and the house that his sister left behind after committing suicide. Not long after they are there, a neighbor, Morgan, is murdered and all indications point to Sadie as the likely killer. The plot bobs and weaves from there leaving the possibility that almost anyone in the family could be suspect until it leads to a surprising conclusion that most won’t expect. . The story addresses difficult topics including abuse and mental health issues but it is woven into such an artful way that it leads to a better understanding of both. I highly recommend reading this novel and look forward to other books by Mary Kubica!