I enjoyed this book. Well written, with a good story line and strong characters.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Amy Lloyd for the copy of this book. I was asked to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

This book started out well and would have scored 5 stars for much of it. I liked the premise - a British girl, Sam, starts a letter correspondance with Dennis, who has been on Death Row in America for almost 20 years. A lot of people believe that Dennis is innocent of the murders he was convivted of and are campaigning to have his sentence overturned. Sam gets more amd more involved finally flying to be with Dennis in the States.

Things progress at a good pace and the writing is good with plenty of action. It was a quick and gripping read but then all seemed to go fuzzy in the epilogue. There was a lot of action with characters seeing and remembering things with differing viewpoints and reasoning. I was left confused about what the ending was supposed to be and annoyed at having invested my time in the book.

Samantha writes to a prisoner on Death Row after watching a documentary on his wrongful conviction. She soon falls in love with him. Samantha should be ecstatic when Dennis is proven innocent and subsequently released. However, she soon finds that love behind bars is different to building a life together after moving to Florida to be with him. Suspicions continue to arise about the missing girls, and Samantha questions whether Dennis is the man she thought she married...

I liked this book: it was fast-paced with an addictive storyline. I was immediately drawn in by the premise of a woman writing to and falling in love with a man on death-row. Samantha is well fleshed out as the unhappy and unfulfilled school teacher from England and, of course, mentally unstable and reeling from a bad breakup for good measure. I particularly liked the light hand Lloyd deploys in her depictions of the underlying psychology of the characters; it is quite subtle compared to many of the giants in the genre in which it can often come across a bit too clunky and on the nose. Instead, she focuses on creating an atmospheric read with nuggets of information paced throughout, and I enjoyed this approach where it is left to the reader to decipher and theorise. On the whole, however, I did feel that something was missing for me for it to really go down as a favourite.

It is a very current novel, in that you can see the inspirations in Lloyd's writing as true crime documentaries have come to the fore in pop culture with Making A Murderer and the like. The climax was well-plotted; it felt unpredictable but I was not entirely surprised as well. I usually prefer this in this genre as plot twists that come out of left field often come across as gimicky in psychological thrillers and therefore do not stand up to repeat reads. I enjoy leaving a novel feeling that the dots match up in a surprising but not entirely shocking way. On the other hand, I felt like the ending, whilst interesting in terms of character study, ultimately felt too much like the go-to ending of today's psychological thriller titles. And this is coming from someone who only reads this genre every once in a while.

I am afraid I do not really have as much to say about this one. I really enjoyed reading it, but I am unsure whether it will stay with me. If you like psychological thrillers, this would be a good one to pick up and I will definitely be keeping track of this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a copy for review.

Many thanks to Amy Lloyd, Cornerstone and Netgalley for my ARC.
I have a thing for these kinds of stories. Murderers in prison and the women who love them. It's crazy. So l knew this book was going to be by jam the minute l read the blurb, and it didn't disappoint.
There were a few minor issues l had (especially at the beginning) with either the writing or the flow, but by half way l was full invested in the story and rushed to the end. So don't let this put you off, my complaints are really minor. And the second half was truly excellent.
Honestly, l wasn't a fan of the letters between our jailhouse lovebirds, l think it would have been really hard to express the growth of feeling that this pair supposedly had for each other through their letters. I think this aspect would have been better as a tell, rather than show type of writing.
For me, this book really hit its stride when newly exonerated Dennis (who may or may not be a serial killer) returns to his home of Red River with his new bride. Suspicion grows for his new bride, who starts to see another side to Dennis. But is she just driving herself crazy?
And the sense of place was perfect. Poor Samantha was so out of her element in Florida, the swampy bushland, the critters and the heat.
I think maybe the first third of this book was 3 stars and the last half was 5 stars, so l'm going to meet in the middle and call it 4 stars.
Amy Lloyd shows great potential, and l'm truly excited to pick up whatever she writes next (hopefully another thriller).

This seemed somewhat derivative of the premise behind Making A Murderer, but since I enjoyed that documentary, this book hit all the right notes for me. Tense and twisty, it did keep me engaged right until the dark and chilly end, I didn't warm to the central character, but I think that's deliberate and the plot was enjoyably silly. Fans of the genre will enjoy.

I’m not sure where to even start with this review. But I throughly enjoyed this book.
The first thing that grabbed my attention was the similarities with ‘Making a Murderer’ documentaries which I found really interesting. You think you know where the book is going, then it just catches you off guard.
This was an addictive thriller which I found hard to put down. I would even go as far as saying that I loved this book.

This book was reasonable - I think it would be alright to read on flight or a beach on holiday but it's not something I would recommend otherwise. I did think the setting and environment were well described and added to the thriller effect, but some things were a bit overdone or obvious (e.g. animals being killed, a rundown farmhouse in the woods). I found there were parts of the plot that didn't really add up and the mystery didn't have the layers of complexity that I would like. As I read I had less and less sympathy for the main character - I thought she was unlikeable and came across poorly - she seemed lazy and had no personality other than being needy and insecure (eg she quits her job and then doesn't work, she's messy and eats takeaways, she seems to have no interests or hobbies). I cringed in a few places because so much of her behaviour (snooping through things, obsessing over other women and throwing tantrums) seemed inappropriate and unreasonable - in the end I wasn't really interested in what happened to her. I disliked a lot of the social media and context that was put in, such as the well educated middle class wife having the proper views on things like privilege and mansplaining, and attempting to correct her husband's views - it felt to me very patronising and ignorant.

I tried to read this book, I managed about half. While it was very well written, it wasn’t enjoyable. I didn’t like any of the characters and I found the story very slow. I found I didn’t care what happened and I was forcing myself to read on. I concluded I didn’t want to spend any more time on this title, I’m sorry.

Amazing thriller, had me hooked from beginning to end - i predict this will be a big hit!

THE INNOCENT WIFE

Samanatha is teacher in England, single with a failed relationship which ended badly.

Dennis is serving life imprisonment in usa. He was charged with killing a child and suspected of killing a number of teenage girls from his home town who mysteriously disappeared.

I think Sam believes in Dennis so much because she feels she’s not worthy of anyone else. You find out later in the story that her boyfriend wouldn’t commit to her and found someone whilst still seeing Sam. She reacted violently

They start out as pen pals things progress quickly and Sam decides to visit. Dennis asks her to marry him. Then he’s released when new evidence comes to light.

Sam is not really ready to have a normal life with Dennis after all they are not a normal couple. From the beginning life is strained.

I don’t want to give away to much of the story. I certainly wanted to find out what would happen but as the story was told from Sam’s perspective I felt you didn’t really get to know Dennis as well as you could. But I think that was the point to keep him mysterious.

The ending for me was a bit rushed and then skipped forward a couple of months.

The book is well written and I did enjoy it and would be happy to read another book by this author

Wow, loved this book from chapter one. Constant stream of a well written story. Easy to read and thoroughly enthralling.
Love the constant did he didn’t he. The secrets and lies withheld until you least expected it.
Well done.
Would definitely buy this for a friend

The Innocent Wife follows English school teacher Sam as she befriends Dennis Danson, an American imprisoned for a murder she, and many others are convinced he didn't commit.

The first half of the book, is split between a variation of Sam's perspective, letters between her and Dennis and transcripts from the documentary made about Dennis' case. We follow Sam as her relationship with Dennis progresses and she becomes 'The Innocent Wife'. New evidence emmerges and Dennis is found to be not guilty, following his release as he discovers social media, Sam starts to discover more about her husband and his life before prison.

The pace of the introdutory and plot building chapters ia helped by the mix of letters, this plateaus slightly before the quick- paced, hard to put down conclusion that I hadn't predicted (I had two theories, both were completly wrong).

The characters of Sam and Dennis were well developed and we're given enough information about each of their pasts throughout the book to appreciate why each of them has ended up where they are now, as flawed individuals. Sam is a partciularly interesting lead, when we meet her she's at a particularly low point of her life following a previous breakup, writing to Dennis gives her a renewed sense of purpose and its an interesting moral dilema of whether to route for their romance or not.

Personally I'm not a massive crime/thriller fiction lover but I did enjoy this and found it quite easy to get quickly immersed in. It's an extremely interesting premise; firstly what would lead someone to write to a man sentaced to die for the murder of a young girl? Secondly how would you deal with being released after you've been locked up for over twenty years, falling headfirst into a world of iphones and twitter. Thirdly, how does a marriage built through letters and plexiglass when they're left to be a 'normal' couple.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an uncorrected proof in exchange for an honest review.

Simmers but never boils. I read the book over several days and I waited for a 'wow didn't expect that' to happen - but sadly no. However, book is well written and for me is a somewhat different story theme. At the end I felt it would probably make a good film - Elisabeth Moss as Sam and Ryan Gosling/wig as Dennis?! Pace is good throughout but ending options are limited - was he or wasn't he involved in the killings of the other girls? Dennis is an enigma so you expect not to understand him too much. I didn't feel as if i got involved in any other character. So in all .. a bit disappointing for me

I've often wondered why women and also men decide to write, then fall in love with a convicted murderer. To me it seems very irrational behaviour and I cannot get my head around why on earth someone would voluntarily become involved with a murderer. Perhaps they themselves are very complex individuals and it would probably need a psychiatrist to explain their reasoning. I imagine many studies have been conducted on this subject, trying to link Freud and Jung's psychological theories to this behaviour.

There appears to be more women than men contacting inmates and marriages between a women and a male inmate are far more frequent than a man marrying a woman inmate. An article by Sharon Murphy in the Independent Newspaper on 17 June 2015 (link http://www.independent.co.uk/life-sty...) states that women who are lonely, have body image concerns or maybe have low self esteem etc., are more likely to contact inmates. The article states:

'Hybristophilia - a condition whereby women are sexually aroused by and responsive to the men who commit heinous crimes. Often referred to as the 'Bonnie & Clyde' syndrome.'

In the The Innocent Wife Sam's life is in turmoil, she's been rejected by her boyfriend Mark, is overweight and her self esteem is very low etc. She wants someone to love, who will love her back and is quite desperate to find this man. Hearing about Dennis, a convicted murderer on death row, she decides to write to him. Sam pours out her soul to him and they soon start to correspond regularly.

Campaigners are fighting for the release of Dennis. He maintains his innocence and many people believe that he is innocent. Sam starts to believe that Dennis is innocent and gets involved in the campaign. She travels from the UK to the USA to visit Dennis, they end up getting engaged and later married. Eventually some evidence is found that proves that it was another man and not Dennis, that committed the murder. Dennis is released and he starts appearing on TV, starts writing a book, is showered with gifts etc., so is now raking in a lot of money. However, married life for Sam is not how she imagined it was going to be. Dennis at times, is quite cool towards her. Things happen and she starts wondering about the missing girls that have never been found.

This is Amy Lloyd's debut novel and I found it to be a very interesting read. I'll be keeping an eye out for future novels by this author.

I received a digital 'Uncorrected Proof' copy from Netgalley in return for my review.

Wow ! what a debut thriller from Amy Lloyd,a superb book that had me reading well into the night.Dennis Danson is a man on death row in the USA after being guilty of a murder he says he never did.Samantha a teacher in England comes across his story and begins writing to Dennis and it soon becomes apparent that Samantha is falling for his charms so she leaves her job and flies over to see him.A relationship develops and they are soon married but when new evidence is uncovered and Dennis is freed that is when Samantha starts to question whether or not she has done the right thing and when Lyndsey an old friend from Dennis's school days starts to hang around things start to go awry and secrets and lies come tumbling out.The book is an excellent 5 star read and if you enjoy this genre buy this book you will not be disappointed.

The Innocent Wife is cracking read that leads the reader down a twisty path to a surprising, but terrifying conclusion. I read it in two days, I didn’t want to put it down.


Twenty years ago, Dennis Danson was arrested and imprisoned for the brutal murder of a Holly Michaels in Florida's Red River County. Now he's the subject of a crime documentary that's causing a frenzy to uncover the truth and free a man who has been supposedly wrongly convicted.


A thousand miles away in England, Samantha is obsessed with Dennis’s case. She exchanges letters with him, and is quickly won over by his apparent charm and kindness to her. Soon she has left her old life behind to marry him and campaign for his release. But when the campaign is successful and Dennis is freed, Sam begins to discover new details that suggest he may not be quite so innocent after all. How do you confront your husband when you don’t want to know the truth? Is Dennis innocent, is he the killer, is he an accomplice, or is he trying to protect someone close to him.
Sam’s position fascinated me. What would make a young woman take such action? Are these the actions of a rational woman? The most interesting part is when Sam and Dennis are finally united after his release. Dennis is courted by companies that shower him with presents and fame. Sam is an observer, worried and somewhat bewildered. Dennis’ personality changes and Sam is left to fear the consequences.
If you watched Making a Murderer you’ll love this. I can heartily recommend this book to thriller fans. I don't want to give anything away, so will conclude my review with this; buy it.

Lastly many thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House, for providing me with a copy this book in return for a fair and honest review.

This novel could have been so good, had it not been for the excessive waffle and annoying characters. I enjoyed a lot of this story but in the end, the conclusion really let this novel down.

Ever since Making a Murderer came out, I've seen hundreds of non fiction books and new documentaries tackling the subject of the wrongfully convicted. However, I hadn't seen many fiction books taking on the topic which is what lured me into reading this one. I think the plot for this one was quite unique for what's on the market today but it wasn't as well executed as it could have been... still good but let down by a mediocre ending.

I thoroughly enjoyed a lot of this book but it was drawn out. It felt as though Lloyd was trying to reach a word goal rather than actually add substance to the plot. A lot of what happens is a repeated. Each time there are slight changes to what happens, but it can't distract from the fact that you are reading basically the same thing as before.

This book just whooshed past me! The time in the book goes super quickly. Even big events in this book, like Dennis' release from prison, passes in a couple of pages. I thought this was a bit strange, honestly, to not have any time for a big part of the novel to sink in before you're whisked off to a new situation. I didn't like the fact that the book took away from the significance of the important events in this way.

In terms of characters, Sam was pretty annoying. She was really hysterical and whingy. It got to the point that when something actually happened to warrant a hysterical moment or a whinge, I didn't really care. I thought the rest of the book was really well written, but I felt a disconnect with Sam. She could go from two extremes in the matter of seconds and so that made her really feel like a character, not someone I could imagine being a real person.

Dennis on the other-hand was very real feeling. He could be such a nasty piece of work and then turn into the sweetest gentlemen ever. He was exactly the kind of man every girl is told to avoid, a man who can pick you up and then make you feel like dirt a second later. And even as a reader I was sucked into this pattern of thinking he was an OK guy, troubled because of his 20 year incarceration, and then thinking he was a dirtbag for how he could behave.

Although I enjoyed various things in this book and even though I found it a little drawn out and repetitive I would have still given this a 4 star review because I had liked getting to know the characters, even the annoying ones, and I liked the plot line. Unfortunately a predictable and strange conclusion to the mystery really made for a disappointing ending, one that knocked a whole star from my rating!

Lloyd is good at writing and building characters but her storyline lacked excitement and shock. If you don't read this one, you're not missing out on much.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House, Cornerstone for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review!

'The Innocent Wife' started with so much promise but ended in such disappoint. The opening was really interesting and I loved how extracts were worked in from different sources. Sam as a character was pretty pathetic and just got more irritating as the book went on. Although the book started off really strong, by the middle it started to loss momentum and the end was boarding on ridiculous.

I kept expecting something to happen and yet found that it just trundled on till you got to about 90% through; at which point everything came tumbling out at once in a very disappointing ending.

To me it was one of those books where I ended up not really caring what happened to any of the main characters because they were all so unlikable or plain deluded; don't even get me started on the Epilogue!

Saying this, I really enjoyed Amy Lloyd's writing style, which flowed well and at times really held my interest.

Thank you Netgalley, Random House & Cornerstone.

I have to say I've been left confused as to how I feel about this book. The story had great potential but some parts were rushed, some dragged and the ending not particularly clear. The Epilogue was just far too unbelievable.

Sam, a Brit, falls for Dennis who is on death row in America. She moves to be with him and they marry but things don't go so well. I didn't take to any of the characters and wanted to scream at Sam so many times! She definitely had some issues of her own but we never got to know enough about her to feel sorry for her or understand why she was that way.

However, I did keep reading and finished the book within a day. I would try another book by this author.

I received an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

Dennis Danson is on Death Row in the USA for a crime he says he did not commit. Sam is an English girl with low self esteem, and a miserable life who becomes intrigued with Dennis after seeing a documentary about his case. The two write to each other and Sam goes to visit Dennis in America.

What happens next is a roller coaster for Sam. Is Dennis the man he appears to be? Could he have links to other murders carried out in the town of Red River? Can she trust him, and the people in his entourage? So far so standard psychological thriller.

But Sam turns out to be an unreliable narrator, and we gradually learn more of what happened to her in the UK to end her last relationship.

Apart from a slightly daft chase through the woods scene, near the end, I enjoyed this book, felt the suspense and particularly found the ending very fitting.