Summary
“…He comes over on Thursday every week. That’s my day, I’m Thursday. It’s a hopeful day, lost in the middle of the more important days; not the beginning or the end, but a stop. An appetizer to the weekend. Sometimes I wonder about the other days and if they wonder about me. That’s how women are, right? Always wondering about each other-curiosity and spite curdling together in little emotional puddles. Little good that does; if you wonder too hard, you’ll get everything wrong…”
Thursday is married to a man she loves more than anything, Seth. But their marriage is a different kind of arrangement and Thursday has learned to cope with it. Seth has two other wives and Thursday doesn’t get to see her husband every day. She has to share the man she loves. She is the middle wife and she is sure that Seth loves her best, but she has never met the other two wives and she can’t help but be curious. She can’t help but wonder about the other two women she shares her husband with. One day, when cleaning his clothes, she finds a note, from a woman named Hannah. She is sure that Hannah is one of the other wives. Thursday has to know more. She has to find Hannah. She has to see who she is sharing her husband with.
Thursday pretends to be someone else and meets Hannah over lunch. What she sees surprises and frightens her. Hannah is beautiful and pregnant. Hannah is also hiding bruises on her arms. Thursday has never known Seth to be violent but the bruises are deep and purple and shaped like a hand. Thursday has to decide what to do. Does she reveal who she is? Her agreement with Seth was to never contact the other wives, but now that she has met Hannah, how can she turn away? And what of the first wife, Seth’s original wife.
Thursday begins to wonder, just how much does she even know her husband.
Review
The Wives by Tarryn Fisher is difficult to review because as a reader, you absolutely want others to love this book as much as you did so how much to share, becomes the question. I have not had a novel take as many twists and turns and still able to keep me involved as The Wives does in a very long time. It is absolutely one of the best thrillers and mystery books I have read in some time.
It is narrated throughout by the main character, Thursday and she will take you on a trip through reality and delusion and truth and lies unlike any you may have have been on. Thursday has shades of Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction and shades of the devoted, sheltered wife in every Lifetime movie you have wasted two hours of your life on. Even in the beginning, it is easy to tell that Thursday has an edge to her. But how sharp and who it will cut remains for the book to tell.
I’m really not trying to be obtuse here, but this is such a good read that I hate to give anything away. So I will just say, it is one hell of a good read and will remind you of what thrillers use to be.
Prepare for a long night, have a few drinks, some good snacks and enjoy the ride!
Books and Lesser Evils 