The Starter Wife

Nina Laurin. author of Girl Last Seen and What My Sister Knew, employs plot twists, surprising developments, and misdirection to maximum effect to compel The Starter Wife forward as readers try to discern the difference between reality and her unreliable lead character's imagination.

Colleen Westcott's disappearance has never been fully solved. Was it murder? Suicide? Or is she still alive, but missing? Her body has never been recovered. Claire Westcott is married to Colleen's husband, Byron, a professor of literature at the same small college where Colleen also taught. Bryon was, of course, a person of interest in the investigation into Colleen's death, but no charges were ever brought against him. Claire and Byron began dating five years ago after they met at an alumni event. Claire had been one of his students. They married after a whirlwind courtship, and Claire is supposed to be writing a book while Byron is teaching, but the rejections from publishers are numerous and continuing to arrive.

Through a first-person narrative, Claire describes her life with Byron and what it's like to live in the shadow of his presumably dead first wife. Her paintings hang on virtually every wall of the house she shares with Byron -- the one in which he resided with Colleen. The same furniture fills the home, including their bedroom. Claire relates, "Colleen may have died but she never left." Their attempts to have a child have not been successful, Claire is drinking far too much, and it appears that Byron has lost interest in and patience with her. He is spending more and more time away from home, and when he's there, he's distant. Claire suspects that he is having an affair with one of his students.

Against that backdrop, in addition to receiving a telephone call that Claire is convinced is from Colleen, she receives an email that simply disappears from her in-box. Desperate to hold onto Byron and their marriage, Claire becomes determined to solve the mystery of Colleen's disappearance. She also follows the young coed with whom she thinks Byron has been unfaithful, and confides in one of his colleagues. But when she proposes and tries to lure him into an elaborate scheme to obtain hormone treatments in an unhinged attempt to conceive a child, the colleague is understandably alarmed and bolts. A narrative from an unidentified third party, addressing Byron, appears to be the voice of someone stalking Claire. Who is she?

Laurin keeps readers off-balance as she takes them on an uncomfortable journey into Claire's thoughts. Claire struggles with self-doubt related to body image and her failure to succeed as a writer, in addition to the stress of living with a husband who seems to have never gotten past his first wife's disappearance. Is Claire merely a stand-in wife to Byron? Or does he really love her, but is emotionally unable to fully move forward with his life after the trauma of losing his first wife? Since Byron is obviously damaged and unable to fully commit himself to their marriage, why is Claire so obsessed with him and hellbent on staying in the relationship?

Whether Claire is a victim or a very disturbed villain is unclear until her estranged sister arrives, and the truth about Claire's past is gradually revealed. From that juncture, the book's pace accelerates and the story races to an explosive conclusion.

Laurin distinguishes herself in a crowded field of female authors publishing psychological thrillers. Although none of Laurin's characters are particularly likable, each is fascinating in her/her own right, and The Starter Wife is entertaining. She clearly enjoys presenting a fact with certainty, only to insert doubt a few chapters later, and employs that technique expertly in this story. Right up to the end of the book, in fact, which readers should not be surprised to find mired in ambiguity and intertwined in the sly commentary Laurin injects about social media through the depiction of chatter among Byron's students on an internet forum. The Starter Wife is an excellent choice for a summer afternoon read by the pool or on the beach, as well as a book club discussion.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.