Oh this book. Five stars!!!!! I loved Behind Her Eyes, the twist at the end was a killer. This one was just as good!
Both books have suspense plots that *sound* like a lot else that's being published, with the same appeal factors as your run of the mill domestic thriller (unreliable / unlikable narrator, dark secrets hanging over a marriage). But Sarah Pinborough's stand far, far above the rest of the pack.

First, I can not emphasize enough my delight in the creepy voudou element of this book. The apparitions of the voudou ghost were downright scary -- and it takes a lot to scare me.

Then it turns out that the entire plot is based on a supernatural premise. Whoa! I love that! Secret genre blending!!!

I also felt that both characters were palpably real. You could feel Marcie's anxiety vividly around her secret being discovered. The secret itself was fabulous and unguessable. And, Keisha is such a mystery that you can't stop reading the pages to find out what her deal is.

Totally amazing, I will absolutely recommend it to anyone who reads domestic thrillers. I will selling it as having a little "something extra" for those who don't mind being scared. What a talent! Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review this excellent book.

May contain spoilers:



I love Sarah Pinborough, so I was very thankful to receive an advanced copy of Dead to Her through Netgalley. It was so good. I read it in one sitting. Enemies become friends, friends become enemies, there was some voodoo and ghosts thrown in. Everything was so unexpected, but blended so perfectly!

WTH! My mind is spinning so hard! Did somebody hit me with a brick or a flower pot hit me in the head as I was passing through? Why I am seeing stars and “ wishing on a star” plays in my head, I don’t listen to Kpop and BTS (Taking it back ! I loved their collaboration with Halsey) This is freaking train ride! If you cannot handle all those twists, surprises, more twists (oh no I don’t want to vomit but my stomach really churns! So much UTURNS and ups-downs, don’t believe any explanations of the author, she tricks you so bad!) I’m so overwhelmed!

I read a few books of the author. I liked some of them but I think the ending of “Behind Her Eyes” a little (Taking it back, it made me wooaahhh what the hell, what kind of twist is this kind of shocked and truly frustrated!) disturbing for my taste. But thankfully I cannot say the same for the ending of this book because IT’S SO SURPRISINGLY SATISFYING AND MADE ME GRIN TOO MUCH!

So firstly, let’s take a quick look of the story of the book: Marcie Maddox marries for the second time and engages with her new social circle but her secure position changes the day their widower friend brings his new, probably trophy wife Keisha who is her early 20’s, beautiful, sexy and the worst part of it, she takes the full attention of Marcie’s husband Jason. So what is gonna happen? Will Marcie do anything to pretend his husband’s probable affair attempts ? will she sharpen her blades to go to the war?

I cannot say any other word because any of my explanation about the book will mean more spoilers and ruining your reading. Because this is not simple page turner, whodunit book! The identity of “dunit” make your eyes, mouth and several organs widen ))

This is steamy, capturing, unputdownable, tricky book with delicious, mysterious, entertaining progression, good characterization and perfect conclusion. Lies, secrets, betrayals, back-stabbing, new era’s Dallas meets Dynasty kind of tricks, schemes and voila we have a really great thriller in our hands.

So I had great, enjoyable time and thankfully the conclusion about this book was not illogical or disappointing.
Special thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow to choose me to send this ARC COPY in exchange my honest reviews. It was hellof a crazy train ride and I enjoyed every page of it!

Well, well, well, what a tangled web we weave......

Go in as blind as you can! That's the best advice I can give for those who want to read this book. I requested this book simply because I loved Behind Her Eyes by Pinborough. I had no idea what the book was going to be about.

The basic gist from the synopsis is that beautiful Marcie Maddox knows what it is like to be the second wife, who now has a secure place in their social circle. But when their friend, William, a recent widower brings home a new wife after a whirlwind romance in London, their circle is shocked and Marcie feels jealous when she witnesses the attention her handsome husband is giving to Keisha, the new wife.

That's all folks. What I will tell you is that this book took me by surprise and was very entertaining. Just when I thought I had things figured out, Pinborough, changed things up a little. There are some twists, turns, and revelations. And after all of those, she isn't done yet. Just when I thought the final reveal was shown, she surprised me yet again.

This book has it all, the perfect hot steamy setting of Savannah, sexy beautiful people, lies, deceit, secrets, betrayal and mysterious characters. Most of the characters fall into the likable one minute unlikeable in the next because their motivation is never quite clear. Some characters seem pretty transparent, but as I read further, I began to doubt what I thought I knew. Oh, how I love books that keep me guessing. Of course, there are some who just seem questionable from the get-go.

A very entertaining, engaging and captivating book.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley who both provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

I had received this, after receiving a copy on another site, but wanted to leave a review on this one too!
5 plus stars! Loved the magic Pinborough brought back in this book, from BEHIND HER EYES! Also thought it was well written and fun to read, with lots of twists! Unputdownable! One of my top reads this year! Pinborough is an automatic read for me!

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting novel about much younger second wives and their struggles in Atlanta society.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

This book had a promising start, but quickly began to drag and became extremely repetitive. It wasn’t until over the halfway point that the story became more interesting and the pace quickened. Part of the problem was that none of the characters were likable, and readers won’t care about their lives and/or problems until so far into the book.

I really enjoyed this book. I love Sarah Pinborough’s first novel, Behind Her Eyes, so when I saw this book I had to have it. All the secrets kept my attention. The love triangle really hooked me. Wow! But the end was a little repetitive. I liked the twists, the who done it, but I felt we could have got there a little faster.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a digital advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review. I read Sarah Pinborough's last book and it was really interesting and surprising, so I was happy to give this one a go. Unfortunately, this title has a cast of truly awful characters.

Whereas, in the previous novel, the main character was sympathetic, in this book, the character whose POV we most often see (Marcie) is a shallow grifter, a second trophy wife who landed her wealthy husband while she was waitressing and edged out his first wife using her feminine wiles and bedroom skills. The second POV we see is Keisha, another trophy wife who is very young, British and black. She's slightly more sympathetic, a fish out of water, a foreigner who is thrust suddenly into polite society in Savannah and is expected by her elderly widower husband (William) to behave like a typical Southern belle. However, she is gorgeous and latched onto her husband only to get away from her abusive family members and wait for "Billy" to die so she can inherit his money.

The story is suspenseful and it chugs along at a nice clip. The characters are nicely realized, and there are a lot of them (I did find myself going back to try to remember which ancillary old, wealthy person I was dealing with). When we arrive at the last quarter of the book, the storyline amps up and a lot of things happen quickly. Some I had been expecting, as Pinborough surely put the gun in Act III so someone can get shot in Act X. Others come seemingly from nowhere - or maybe they were very small details that I missed, but they were only mentioned once in passing. These last are the details on which the entire drama turns, and the reader is left a little whiplashed as a result. Pinborough is good at making the "who" in the "whodunnit" be someone you'd never expect, and so I had my "who" all picked out (I was wrong! It was an even unlikelier "who,"), and this ending follows that premise.

Overall, it's a good book, even if the ending is a bit of an unraveling and beggars belief. It's like Pinborough can't decide if she wants to write a mystery novel or a supernatural one, and the way she blends the two genres is to introduce paranormal elements after the reader is hooked into the plot. Those elements in this plotline are hinted at throughout; I knew to expect them to coagulate at the finish, but they are revealed a little bit artlessly and with great speed. The saving grace is that everyone more or less gets what they deserve.

Mystery set in Savannah involving two second wives. This book had lots of characters and subplots which made it difficult for me to follow. Savannah does not figure prominently in the book which was disappointing. None of the characters were very likable. Ending was probably the best part of the book...clever.

Behind Her Eyes may be my favorite thriller of all time, so this book had a lot to live up to, even if I was super disappointed in the forgettable Cross Her Heart. Nothing to worry about here, Dead to Her is awesome. There is so much going on here... Illicit affairs, love triangles, double lives, murder, voodoo (Louisiana AND Nigerian), you name it! Somehow Sarah Pinborough makes it all work.

I have read 2 of Sarah’s Pinboroughs other novels. I adored Behind Her eyes, but I didn’t care for the next one I read. I ADORED this one!!! I could not stop reading! I could not put it down! I loved and hated all of the characters and even though I finished this book a week ago I still think about it!!

I liked the novel and the descriptions of the rich in Savannah. I didn't care for any of the characters, per se, but the novel kept me interested in what was happening. A lot of the reviews discuss the aspect of the voodoo parts of this novel, and, while it is a part of the book, it's not the main part. The book also deals with greed, infidelity, and power. While it wasn't my favorite Pinborough novel (I don't think anything can beat Behind Her Eyes), it was interesting.

Another solid title by Sarah Pinborough. Mystery lovers won't be disappointed. "Behind Her Eyes" held more twists and turns but fans will still enjoy.

As the younger second wife of a successful wealthy man, Marcie knows how ruthless you have to be to get there, but with a newer, younger second wife entering her social circle, one who seems to have a spark with Marcie's husband, she will have to decide how ruthless she is willing to be to stay there.

I went into this book with an incorrect idea of what it would be about. I loved The Last Mrs. Parrish for having characters you root for but hate, bad guys seeming to win, and lots of descriptions of wealthy life that you enjoyed vicariously. I thought this might be in the same vein, but it really isn't. It's still good, but it is its own thing.

For one, we are never sure where to place our sympathies, but we also don't have many (female at least) characters to outright hate. I'll never truly blame a female character who is in hard times and has a skeezy guy try to use her so she uses him right back. He doesn't love you, just wants you for your body, so it's fine by me for you to use him for his money or as an escape or something without love. Both Marcie and Keisha fall into that boat, but then the promised "ruthlessness" doesn't really show up and that didn't do it for me. It was more about how their lives seemed kind of sad and maybe they fought for something they didn't end up really wanting. Even the back cover copy promising a rivalry is resolved quickly, and in a way I quickly guessed but was very happy to see carried through.

There's a lot of interesting stuff about race here, Keisha, the newest wife, is black and entering Southern society. Her being British changes some things, and I would have loved to see that explored a bit more. Her family immigrated to England from Africa, and the way they are treated versus how Keisha is treated as an immigrant from England, they way marriage to a wealthy man and the "exotic but cultured" idea white Americans have of England making for an easier path, that she is coming from a perceived as white country softening immigration views even though both US and UK have some tough anti-black sentiment? That could have been really interesting, and I would have preferred it to the voodoo aspects that are expanded on instead.

I was a bit uncomfortable with how voodoo/voudon is portrayed here. I'm not someone whose opinion should matter much, I am white and from northern USA and culturally Catholic, but even with my very limited knowledge (like, I read a couple books for a class in college ages ago and I did a tour when visiting New Orleans) knows that it is a real religion practiced by real people and I wonder if making magic unambiguous and able to cause harm to people is respectful to these real practitioners. I think I would be uncomfortable with a novel that focused on "drinking God's blood!" giving a Catholic powers that she uses to commit murders or something. So, anyway, I cringed a little bit during those parts but it is possible that the author or publisher used sensitivity readers and it is all fine and just my ignorance overthinking it but it does limit my willingness to recommend this book to friends or library patrons. [spoiler tag used on goodreads] The ghost boy was explained well, I liked the twist but it does paint her family and therefore the culture they come from as savages a bit. I know it is true that many cultures would see albinos as subhuman and useful for ritual purposes, but I don't know how recent that is and I fear it as a plot point adds to the racist white Westerner view of Africa as a backwards place stuck in the past, as opposed to realizing that Keisha's family just sucks and are murderers and are awful. There are no other characters to really show that difference. (hide spoiler)]

I appreciated that the end got a little Richard Matheson "Button, Button" inspired, and would have liked to see a bit more of that devious flavor in the rest of the novel. As it is, some of the main story got a bit of a slog. I would have loved some more description of excesses of the rich or some low level drama amongst society, but while I appreciated that Iris seemed to actually be a good person (and I suspected her as the bad guy because of it), we are just left with a bunch of people who are neither good nor bad but mostly trying their best. Realistic, sure, but less fun.

So yes, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't fun like I expected and hoped, and the action of the suspense part of the novel wasn't so quick moving as to keep me super interested and none of it really kept me from the discomfort of unfortunate racial and religious implications. Recommended only with reservations.

I have not enjoyed Pinborough’s last novels AT ALL (behind her eyes is still messing with my head). After starting this and reading other negative reviews, I’ve decided to skip this one and move on to other books that appeal to me more.

Being the young second wife to one of the Savannah’s rising attorneys is tough. Marcie has a colorful past that she wants to remain secret. It is hard enough fitting in without everyone looking down at her past. Then comes the Boss’s new, younger, second wife. She is beautiful and all of a sudden Marcie starts feeling more inferior and it doesn’t help that her husband has taken notice of the new member to their group.

The story starts with the basic tenants of a domestic thriller but then morphs into so much more; lies, deception, and betrayal. Never have the police had so many worthy candidates for the attempted murder. The book is broken into several parts. The first half has the lies, paranoia, sex, and cheating while the second part introduces a darker voodoo vibe that plays nicely into the story.

The is a hard to put down, who-done-it psychological thriller. With the creative and manipulative ending, this is sure to a favorite book this winter. Highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishing house, and the author for allowing me a chance to read an electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited to get this book! I became a fan of this author with "Behind Her Eyes". I really liked this book too. I think the only thing keeping me from rating a 5/5 is because it seemed almost like I had two different books. What I mean is that it took me some time to read this book as life was busy. The first half seemed like a bunch of old money, rich Savannah people who just can't be happy. One sleeps with one who may or may not be sleeping with the other. It gets steamy in Savannah but in an alternate way that what usually happens with a cheating spouse scenario. (I don't want to ruin anything). Then the story takes a turn into some NOLA-brand voodoo with well-known players involved. So that made it fun. It definitely wasn't the typical domestic/psychological suspense/thriller which are so popular right now.

So, I am a fan of Ms. Pinborough now and I look forward to her next!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishing house, and the author for a free electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

It’s a special kind of book where you don’t like any of the characters, but are still really invested in what happens to them. Moody and atmospheric, with a great ending.

This is the first Sarah Pinborough book I have read and truthfully, I wasn't impressed. The book started very slow for me but I continued to read and thought it was getting better. However, the story line then turns to voodoo and odd superstitions and I just didn't care for it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the the advanced copy. I was hoping to enjoy it more than I did.