The Replacement Wife by Darby Kane starts out as a strong suspense thriller. Elisa lives in suburban Philadelphia and has a good life with her veterinarian husband and 7 year old son, Nathan. She works from home and has what seem to be “panic attacks,” which limit her outings, as she tries to investigate her brother-in-law Josh’s suspicious behavior involving the losses of a previous wife and girlfriends.
The story begins with reasonable intrigue, but ultimately I found I was unable to become invested in this convoluted tale. The characters were not particularly likeable, and Elisa’s panic attacks made her character seem weak and unreliable. I really enjoyed the author’s previous book “Pretty Little Wife” and will continue to look for her future novels.

Thank you to William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

Thank you to William Morrow's Scene of the Crime Book Club for making this available to read through NetGalley.

I'm going to go ahead and say that this is not the author for me. I didn't like Pretty Little Wife, but I'm always willing to try again and I really liked the premise of The Replacement Wife--about a brother-in-law who seems to have a problem keeping the women in his life alive.

Unfortunately, I don't like these characters and I don't get what is even going on. Right off the bat the narrator is going on and on about how much she hates her brother in law and accuses him of basically being a serial killer without giving the reader any context for it while all the while her husband is just trying to keep the peace. And just a few pages later, the narrator goes to said potential serial killers house...to find a vacuum cleaner? And then stays behind to tidy up because the poor dear is in a state and being a single guy and all, the place is probably a mess anyways.

Wait a minute--you think your husband's little brother is deliberately bumping off his wives and girlfriends and yet he's just casually at your house and you're casually at his helping him clean up his bachelor pad?

The writing is solid, but I'm just not into following Elisa's journey.

I received an ARC from the publisher and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

The Replacement Wife is a bit of a step down from Darby Kane’s previous book, Pretty Little Wife, which I absolutely adored. There are still elements I ended up enjoying, but this one did feed more into some of the elements I dislike about thrillers, without the positives the first book brought to the table to redeem it.

I will say I did appreciate the overall execution of the mystery, and the questions around Josh’s guilt. And while it did feel a bit convoluted, I did like the twist, with the new girlfriend, Rachel. Dimon/Kane also remains consistent in maintaining tension in her plotting and pacing, so even if other elements were off, I remained relatively engaged.

However, Elisa lacked any charm as a protagonist. I was prepared for something of an unreliable narrator, but I didn’t like the direction it went in that regard. I really wanted her own past trauma and spotty memory to be fleshed out more, but instead it was hand waved away as a result of drugs and gaslighting on the part of her scummy family.

And of course, the rest of her family aren’t great either. Josh is meant to be a suspicious slimeball, but he’s hardly the only one. Harris, her husband, is a doormat, and I sometimes would forget he existed, given he provided very little substance to the story. The only one who seemed remotely interesting was Rachel, but that was only in relation to her involvement with Josh, and what that might mean for the mystery.

While I didn’t enjoy this one, and am glad I am not alone in that, I have also seen a number of more positive reviews. I’d recommend this one for someone a bit newer to domestic thrillers.

The Replacement Wife - Darby Kane
Publication Date: 12/28/21
Genre: Mystery/Fiction/Thriller
My Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐️ {rounded up to a 4 for Netgalley}
Read if you Liked:
- Pretty Little Wife
- The Woman in the Window
- The Wife Between Us

Synopsis: Elisa Wright is living a happy life with her husband and son, and up until recently has had a happy relationship with her brother in law. Now, she’s convinced that he’s a murderer. As she digs further and further into his past, she discovers more and more secrets, and things begin happening to her. Who is responsible for the slew of missing women in her brother in law’s life? Only time will tell!

This novel jumped right into the main character thinking her brother in law is a murderer, which took me a bit by surprise and took some getting used to - usually there’s more of a build up to that kind of thing and it honestly feels like you’ve opened up the book in the middle at first. By the halfway point you become much more invested in the story, and want to keep going, figuring out what the heck is going on! Lots of plot twists and new characters pop up everywhere, keeping you guessing. The end is super action packed! Bonus points for how well the gaslighting in this novel is well written, and the unreliable narrator aspect.

Thank you to @harpercollins @williammorrowbooks and @netgalley for this Advanced Reader E-Copy in exchange for an honest review!

Elisa Wright thinks her brother in-law Josh is a murderer. Given his story of women who either die or go missing after they get involved with him romantically, she may be correct to be suspicious. But every time Elisa thinks she's getting close to some answers, something happens that makes her trust herself less and less. Now Josh is dating a new woman, Rachel, and Elisa starts to fear for her safety. But things start unraveling and they are not what they seem....

I typically find the "unreliable female narrator" plot line to be uncomfortable, mostly because it revolves around drinking problems and lack of credibility because of it. I find that an easy way to discredit characters and paints vulnerable women, especially those with mental health issues, as untrustworthy and pathetic. It tends not to sit well with me that in these books, women who are struggling and really need help are shoved to the side and overall dismissed. This book, however, drew from Elisa's traumatic experience and it felt at times it may truly be residual impacts from that fateful day that were clouding her ability to see things more clearly. I was a bit stunned once the truth started coming to light. Overall, this was a great concept and plot line that kept my interest. The ending was a nice twist.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed Darby Kane’s Pretty Little Wife, so I was very excited to read this new domestic thriller with what seemed to be a similar theme. While I was entertained by the book, for me it lacked the constant suspense and tension of Kane’s previous book.

The book starts with a great premise. You know those guys in the news who have wives or girlfriends who just seem, repeatedly, to meet a horrible fate? Or disappear? Josh is one of those guys. But he’s so charming and attractive he manages to keep hooking the ladies. Enter Elisa, the close friend of Josh’s most recently “missing” wife. She’s going to get to the bottom of why Josh’s romantic interests keep meeting accidents and disappearing… and why nothing ever seems to be done about it.

I liked the premise and the characters a lot, but for some reason, this book didn’t hook me like Pretty Little Wife did. There were also a few plot points that seemed implausible including some questionable police work. The conclusion also felt easy to see coming.

Overall, while this book was entertaining, it didn’t have the intensity and “unputdownable” factor of Kane’s previous book. I still really like Darby Kane as a writer and am excited to see what she comes up with next.

Thanks to William Morris and Custom House, NetGalley and the author for the ARC!

For Fans of the Netflix Series The Staircase

Family get-togethers are getting a bit awkward when Elisa (married to Harris) confronts Josh (her brother-in-law) about the wake of missing or dead women in his life. Is Josh the most unlucky man in the world? Or did he have some hand in the disappearance or death of these women? Or is Elisa just losing it after her own personal tragedy?

The Replacement Wife is authored by Darby Kane, author of Pretty Little Wife (which I thoroughly enjoyed). This book had a lot of gaslighting in it which is a very difficult subject to accurately portray. In this sense, the mixture of gaslighting and self-doubt make more sense as Elisa is battling with her recent tragedy, still working on finding the right mix of medication to feel normal throughout the day. The Replacement Wife had strong elements from both the Netflix series The Staircase as well as the life of Robert Durst, both cases that I found fascinating.

Two critiques that I had for this book: The main character's name is Elisa. For whatever reason, it takes me forever to pronounce this name. It would take me just as long to read that name than the entire sentence so I started just calling the character E and my reading speed drastically increased. Perhaps the author could change the name? Second, the ending was not as clean as I would have liked it. Not all of my questions were answered. There is also one suggestion that I would have for the author (and who am I to impinge on an author's literary freedom?). In The Maidens by Alex Michaelides, he tied that book to his debut novel, The Silent Patient. It would have been really lovely to tie The Replacement Wife back to Pretty Little Wife.

Overall, a good novel for fans of Pretty Little Wife or arm chair detectives.

*Thanks, NetGalley, for a copy of this book in exchange for my fair and unbiased opinion.

2022 Reading Schedule
Jan Animal Farm
Feb Lord of the Flies
Mar The Da Vinci Code
Apr Of Mice and Men
May Memoirs of a Geisha
Jun Little Women
Jul The Lovely Bones
Aug Charlotte's Web
Sep Life of Pi
Oct Dracula
Nov Gone with the Wind
Dec The Secret Garden

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I was immediately pulled in… you know something is up but not right away. Once you find out the story unfolds and it is so addicting and captivating!

The writing is so good I felt like I was in the main characters head the whole story, feeling all her emotions. I absolutely loved the story line and how the story unfolded and was wrapped up! I have chills about the ending!

If you’re a domestic thriller lover like I am, I would definitely suggest putting this one at the top of your Christmas list!

The Replacement Wife
by Darby Kane
Pub Date: December 28, 2021
William Morrow Paperbacks

A domestic suspense novel that asks, how many wives and girlfriends should disappear before your family notices?
This was a hard one for me to read and review. I am not a fan of Darby Kane but I did enjoy her debut. I missed in the blurb the mention of panic attacks so this one is on me. If you are like me and do not enjoy "maybe crazy" unreliable female characters and those who gaslight them, I cannot recommend this. I was hoping this would be more about a woman slowly uncovering a mystery and less a fairly one-note main character (does she have a personality that isn't trauma survivor?) wading through panic attacks and possibly on pills she doesn't remember taking. I cannot recommend this book. Thanks to William Morrow and Net Galley for the chance to read this ARC.
3 star

The Replacement Wife is an entertaining suspense with an interesting premise. This novel is full of unreliable characters kept me guessing until the end. Overall, I found it to be enjoyable, but not quite as good as the author's previous release, Pretty Little Wife. 3 stars.

THE REPLACEMENT WIFE by Darby Kane had a particular forward propulsion that kept me turning the pages. The main character, Elise, at sometimes felt as though she wasn't doing much, yet somehow I couldn't wait to return to the book each night. There were plenty of questions I wanted answered, and a general sense of danger throughout. I LOVED the twist at the very end, something I wouldn't have expected at all.

All that said... If I'm being honest, as much as I enjoyed this book as a whole, I was little let down at the ending. It wasn't BAD--it was just a little "meh". Nothing unexpected really happened, I wasn't shocked, and it went down more or less like I figured it would from the beginning. In this genre, I'm a fan of being tricked as a reader, and while that epilogue twist was unexpected, the rest of it wasn't. That said, I will definitely book up the author's next book

Even A Thin Pancake Always Has Two Sides

The novel opens with a verbal fight over the dinner table between Elisa Wright and her brother-in-law, Josh Wright. Elisa strongly believes that Josh has killed his fiancé days before their wedding. Josh strongly denies this and claims that he is the victim of her walking out on him. From here the novel proceeds, and the feud escalates.

The main storyline consists of three interrelated threads. In one thread, Elisa keeps discovering more evidence against Josh including more apparent murders. Every time she confronts Josh, she feels that she is being gaslighted especially when their confrontations are one-on-one. Another thread is that everyone, including her husband, believe Josh is quite innocent and defend him. As a result, Elisa feels isolated and alone. The last thread quickly becomes quickly evident. Elisa has serious mental issues including showing signs of paranoia. So, is Elisa right and Josh a murderer, or is what she perceives as the truth is just a figment of her growing paranoia? Read and find out. The storyline is full of twists turns and what I call literary grenades that captured my interest and held it to the end. This is a major criterion for a high star rating.

Because this is a story of the past being, a significant portion of the main storyline also is the B-storyline. This means that information is revealed incrementally through the novel. The two antagonists are fully developed. This helped keeping the tension high, and my attention captured.

There even is a noticeable C-storyline in this novel. As a result of the events of the novel, the personalities of Elisa and her husband, Harris, are changed by the end of the novel. This aspect of the novel also enhanced my reading enjoyment.

For the characteristics to which some readers object, there are not any intimate scenes. As for objectionable language, it is present, but more rude than vulgar. Because of its context, it did not raise a red flag for me. Most of the violence is described after the fact that is less edgy, but there is a scene where the violence is described as it occurs.

The issue I predict will be a complaint from some reviews is the start because it seems that everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. My response is just keep reading. It is true for all the facts she discovers that she either won’t disclose or are private conversations with Josh that are easily dismissed in light of her current mental issues. The author skillfully keeps this juxtaposition alive in the main storyline. This contributed to my reading enjoyment. The another slightly negative aspect of the novel is the husband seemed a little too reluctant to believe or support his wife, but this was explained. Lastly, I was only 50/50 over the ending, but you will have to read the novel to understand why.

This is the second standalone novel by this author. These novels are not connected. This book has reaffirmed this author in my Will-Read category. This means that if a book of hers becomes available on NetGalley, I will request it if I have any opening in my reading schedule.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. If the publisher’s teaser interests you or you enjoyed reading the previous novel, Pretty Little Wife, I recommend not missing reading this novel. I rate it with five stars.

I received a free e-book version of this novel through NetGalley from William Morrow & Custom House. My review is based only by my own reading experience of this book. I wish to thank William Morrow & Custom House for the opportunity to read and review this novel early.

A good read with some dark twists. Some parts were a little drawn out. A quick read for a psychological thriller lover.

Overall two and a half stars. I really wanted to like this one more. I really enjoyed Darby Kane’s debut, but this one fell a little flat for me. Do you love the unreliable narrator? This one is definitely for you. There are a few twists, but mostly we get to hear from Elisa who is a victim of a recent trauma, has anxiety and slight agoraphobia and is made to believe she is “insane” and “crazy” and really just needs to get back to normal already. I still did flip pages to see what was happening and to see how it all played out, so the writing is done well. I just wasn’t feeling in touch with any of the characters except the private investigator, Shelly. I was surprised by the ending and did like how it all wrapped up though I wish there were a few more answers.

I would recommend this one to people who are new to thrillers.

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest opinion.

Elisa Wright is trying to get over a trauma that occurred almost a year ago. Her life gets even worse when she discovers something that makes her think her husband’s beloved brother is a serial killer. Her best friend was engaged to her brother-in-law and suddenly disappeared and now Elisa is afraid Josh’s newest girlfriend may be in danger, but nobody will believe her.

This book started out strong with an interesting premise. However, a big part of the plot involves Elisa being gaslighted and I find stories like that to be disturbing. On top of that, there are so many unlikable people in the book, the culprit could have been almost anyone. Things get better as the truth comes to light towards the end and many things in the book have satisfying resolutions. However, without giving anything away, there is one twist at the end that surprised me, but I don’t really care for the way things are left. Overall, the book was intriguing, but not always entertaining to read. I would rate it 3.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Scene of the Crime Early Reads for this ebook. An advance copy was provided to me at no cost, but my review is voluntary and unbiased.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow Paperbacks for gifting me a digital ARC of the new book by Darby Kane - 4 stars!

Elisa is convinced that her brother-in-law, Josh, is a murderer. His first wife died in an accident and his fiancé disappeared without a trace. Her husband, Harris, thinks that Elisa is having some sort of mental issue, relating to a recent incident from her past. He helped raise Josh and thinks he can do no wrong. When a new woman comes into Josh's life and befriends Elisa, she knows she has to do something.

This is one of those books that is more fun to read the less you know about it. There's lots of gaslighting, unreliable narration and enough questions that will keep you guessing. I didn't read Kane's debut novel, Pretty Little Wife, but I definitely need to!

This book was amazing and everything of the sort. I will definitely be reading more from this author.

Darby Kane's THE REPLACEMENT WIFE is a solid thriller perfect for fans of Darcey Bell, SJ Watson, and JP Delaney. The confusion and stress the protagonist is experiencing jumps off the page in such a way I felt I needed to take breaks to put my head on straight. The novel's twists and turns were unexpected and the conclusion is ultimately satisfying. While this wasn't a show-stopper for me, this was a domestic thriller done well.

I enjoyed this suspenseful thriller story. This author is newer to me and I really enjoy their writing style. Their twists and turns are like no other and had me sitting on the edge of my seat just waiting to see what would happen next. This is a well written story where it will make you question how many women can come up missing in a family before anyone notices or starts to question what is going on. I enjoyed how the characters pull me into their story as well as kept it engaging. They made me want to know more and I had a hard time putting it down. The characters are relateable and gave life to the story. I enjoyed the growth of the plot throughout the story. This story becomes fast a race of time to find the truth before another disappearance happens. This is a great story and worth the pick up for sure. I highly recommend this book.

3.5 ⭐️‘s
Elisa’s brother in law just might be a killer. After all how much bad luck can you have with women? The only problem is no one takes her seriously. Suffering PTSD, Elisa just might not be reliable. Even her husband thinks she’s on the brink of insanity. Is she being gaslit or is she finally losing it completely? You’ll only know the answer when you reach the final pages.