THE POCKET WIFE was the November 2015 pick in my online book club, The Reading Cove.
After reading TURN OF MIND by Alice LaPlante in 2012, THE POCKET WIFE felt extremely redundant. It was basically the exact same story, only here the woman is bipolar and drunk vs. having dementia.
For a suspense/thriller, tension was virtually nonexistent in this book! While the portrayal of bipolar disorder was well done, overall I found the narrative bland and flavorless. And the plot was too cliché and copycat.
Whodunnit? Who cares? I sure didn't. Neither the dead woman nor the protagonist was anyone you felt you knew or had any reason to care about, yet the story opens with the assumption that you will care.
The writing itself was fine, but from the opening pages, trite red herrings are thrown at the reader, making it super obvious who DIDN'T kill the neighbor, and then the plot was just contrived forced conflict from there.
Maybe I'd have enjoyed this when I was a teenager but it's much too old hat for me now. I give THE POCKET WIFE a generous C.
After reading TURN OF MIND by Alice LaPlante in 2012, THE POCKET WIFE felt extremely redundant. It was basically the exact same story, only here the woman is bipolar and drunk vs. having dementia.
For a suspense/thriller, tension was virtually nonexistent in this book! While the portrayal of bipolar disorder was well done, overall I found the narrative bland and flavorless. And the plot was too cliché and copycat.
Whodunnit? Who cares? I sure didn't. Neither the dead woman nor the protagonist was anyone you felt you knew or had any reason to care about, yet the story opens with the assumption that you will care.
The writing itself was fine, but from the opening pages, trite red herrings are thrown at the reader, making it super obvious who DIDN'T kill the neighbor, and then the plot was just contrived forced conflict from there.
Maybe I'd have enjoyed this when I was a teenager but it's much too old hat for me now. I give THE POCKET WIFE a generous C.
Good, quick read. Perfect for summer reading. Keeps you guessing throughout like any good whodunnit. Gives you insight into what bi-polar disease or any mental illness does to its sufferer. Empathized with the main character, Dana, as she struggles to figure out if she murdered her neighbor. They were both drunk, she has a good motive for being angry with her neighbor, but Dana can't remember much about that afternoon. She tries to figure things out before the mental breakdown she feels coming strikes or before she's arrested. She's not the only suspect though and the twists and turns of all the suspects keeps you reading and when you aren't reading, you're thinking about the case. Finished it in 24 hours!
