I was easily drawn into The Wife Upstairs and pleasantly surprised by a twisted ending.
Jane has found a pretty good job walking dogs for several people in a wealthy subdivision in Birmingham, Alabama. She has secrets -- but no one needs to know what her life in foster homes was like, or what she is running from.
She doesn't make enough money to pay her sleazy housemate his rent, but the rich women she works for don't notice when they lose an earring or some other bobble once in a while.
She runs into Eddie, whose wife has recently died in a boating accident. Eddie becomes interested in Jane, and before she knows it a serious relationship is beginning, and she is moving in with him. All of a sudden the women who she has worked for must try to accept her as one of them. Jane has never known such luxuries and can't believe her good fortune. She even feels comfortable telling Eddie a little bit about her past.
We get a few morsels from the POV of Bea, the "Wife Upstairs," who Eddie has locked up so she can't tell anyone what happened on the boat. And then Bea's death is determined a homicide, not an accident, and the police are asking questions.
That's pretty much all you are going to get. There are a lot of details about Jane's life - past and present - and the lives of others in this neighborhood that add to the intrigue. And like I said, I loved the twisted ending. If you've enjoyed Hawkins' other books, or enjoy these popular twisty domestic mysteries, put The Wife Upstairs on your list.
eARC obtained from Edelweiss
304 pages
Rating: 4.5/5
