My Wife is Missing by D.J. Palmer
I wish to thank Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for this intriguing roller coaster ride. This thriller/mystery kept me up late in the night to finish it.
Michael and Natalie are away in New York City with their two children, when Natalie and the children disappear. Michael is at a loss- where they kidnapped or did they leave on their own free will? Michael will go to any lengths to find his family, but what secrets does he hold that might be revealed along the way. A NYC detective suspects Michael is not being forthcoming with information and decides to travel with Michael to find his missing wife. What is Michel hiding and how much does this detective know?
Natalie is suffering from insomnia; her marriage is faltering and she suspects that her husband Michael is having an affair with one of her co-workers. What secrets does she have? What does she find out about Michael and what does she suspect him of doing?
This novel is told from both sides, Michael and Natalie, and with two different time periods (before and after). At times you want to believe Natalie and then other times you believe Michael. Along the way, the author takes you for a bumpy ride that has many twists and turns. The ending definitely surprised and shocked me. If you like twisty thrillers with a surprising ending, this would be the book for you.

Well DJ Palmer does it again, keeps me on the edge of my seat and guessing. And of course I had it all wrong. I love the way this man’s mind works, and the way that he sends you down so many rabbit holes, that you know a rabbit holes, but you fall for them anyways. And even when you think he’s wrapped it up he throws an epilogue in and turned your world upside down.

This one those books that comes right out the gate swinging. Right away we are sucked into the mystery and it is so hard to put it down! The book has so many twists and turns it was really a heart pounding read. I don't want to say much and give anything away but if you like domestic thrillers this is a good one to read!

My Wife is Missing is a story which takes you on an incredibly breathless journey as to what could have happened to a man’s family while they were on vacation in New York City. The story goes between the day they went missing to the days and months leading up to their disappearance.

Michael Hart takes his wife Natalie and their two small children on vacation to New York. Yes, Michael and Natalie have been having some problems lately, but he feels this could be a step in the right direction to getting back where they once were. But when he returns from getting take-out on their first day, he discovers them all gone, except for his son’s teddy bear which is in the hallway near their hotel room. All signs of them are wiped out, including their luggage. Panic stricken; Michael calls the police.

But as he begins to learn that his wife may have taken the children willingly and concocted this vacation to leave him, he can’t understand why she would do this…or maybe he can.

Natalie has taken the children and ran. She is afraid of Michael. She knows what he has done and what he is capable of doing. She is petrified of him. She is afraid he will kill them all. She has not slept in months worrying about what he will do. Because of the insomnia, her brain is fuzzy, and she seems to be having time lapses and become extremely paranoid. This is the right plan to keep them all safe. But she knows Michael will try and hunt them down and because of this she continues to panic.

As Michael, with help from an off-duty policeman, begin to get lucky and pursue Natalie, he hopes their life together will be able to be fixed. He wants the chance to explain why he did what he did. He knew it was a stupid risk, but they were not in a good place. Then someone was found dead who worked in Natalie’s office. That seems to have made things even worse.

As Michael gets closer to Natalie’s whereabouts, Natalie’s decisions become even more deranged. She begins to formulate a plan to make sure Michael can never do something like this again. A decision she may have to live with for the rest of her life!

My Wife is Missing is a suspenseful thriller which when all the pieces of the mystery come together makes for an explosive, powerful, surprising ending. Don’t always think you know everything about someone….

Thank you #NetGalley #St.Martin’sPress #D.J.Palmer #MyWifeisMissing for the advanced copy.

On a visit to New York City, Michael Hart goes to pick up a pizza and returns to find his wife and kids missing. A security camera reveals that they left willingly. Michael sets out to find them even at the cost of possibly exposing some dark secrets from his past while his wife, Natalie is intent on disappearing because of what she thinks she knows about her husband. This engrossing book moves along at a breakneck speed. Even with chapters that alternate between Michael and Natalie's points of view, you still don't know exactly what is going on which keeps it interesting. However, it seems like if these two people just would have communicated with each other and been honest with each other, none of this would have happened which makes it hard to root for either of them. Also, some parts of the plot seem implausible and/or a little too coincidental. Plus, the end is unsatisfying on two levels after everything thing that happens it seems unlikely that things would just be able to move forward so quickly as though nothing happened and a big part of the resolution of the story hinges on something that is only mentioned in passing once.

I've thoroughly enjoyed each of D.J. Palmer's novels (the ones written as himself, not in conjunction with his father's series) and this was no exception.

Several times throughout I have thought I had figured this book out. My heart pounding as a cat-and-mouse chase takes up 90% of the book, never quite sure if I should trust Michael or Natalie.

Michael and Natalie are a married couple with two children. They're taking a mini vacation to New York City when Michael returns to his hotel room and finds it deserted. In a rising panic Michael scours the hotel for them, searching the restaurants, the pools, the lobby. He finally comes to the conclusion they've been kidnapped and the police are called. Distraught, Michael waits. But as he's being interviewed by a detective, the hotel security shows footage of his wife and kids calmly and safely walking out to a waiting car and driving off. This was no kidnapping.

In alternating perspectives we learn why Natalie has planned this escape from her husband, a man she considers quite dangerous. We see from Michael how much Natalie's insomnia is affecting her rationale, clarity, and stability. Which one can we trust?

I truly was surprised left and right from the reveals in this book. My heart pounded as I devoured the last 15% of the book especially. I will continue to look forward to any DJ Palmer release!

My Wife is Missing
by D.J. Palmer
Pub Date: May 10, 2022
St. Martin's Press
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book! When a woman disappears with her two children, one husband will do anything to find them--even confront the secrets of his own past--in D. J. Palmer's My Wife Is Missing, a twisty thriller from the author of The New Husband.
I enjoyed this fast-paced read! The ending was definitely one I did not expect. I recommend this book to readers who love fast-paced thrillers with a twist!
4 stars

D.J. Palmer is just an amazing author and you will never be disappointed with any this authors books. This book is very fast paced and you will not be able4 to put it down. I highly suggest going into it blind. I highly recommend this book.

This one was enjoyable. I feel like D.J Palmer has a specific way of telling a story that just grabs ahold of your attention and doesn't let go.
I loved the Dual POV in this one and how quickly the story went.
The final twist I did not see coming and the Epilogue was great.

My Wife Is Missing

3.5 stars rounded up!

The Perfect Daughter was one of my favorite thrillers I read last year. So My Wife Is Missing has been one of my most anticipated reads of 2022! While I enjoyed the twists, which I did NOT see coming, My Wife is Missing didn’t pack quite the same punch.

The good:
DJ Palmer knows how to write a compelling thriller. I was transported in multiple instances in the story, particularly in Nat’s story line. The tension is palpable.
I honestly thought I had the story worked out early on… I did not. The twists kept coming and held my interest.

The bad:
The whole trope of the woman as the unreliable narrator who everyone closest to her convinces her that she’s imagining things just doesn’t work for me.
While the final twist was shocking… it all became too convoluted.

Overall:
I still stand by DJ Palmer and will read anything they write. This one wasn’t a home run for me but it did hold my attention!

Michael and Natalie have been married for a while. Things had gotten a bit hard with raising two kids, both working full time, and maintaining their household. To anyone looking in it appears that all is well. It isn't and it really gets uglier when they go on a long weekend to New York and all of a sudden Natalie disappears with the kids. Michael knows she is afraid, but can he come to terms with why and find her in time to save their life and their marriage? It seems that his whole life has been a tangle of misunderstandings that have turned bad. Natalie has spent a month untangling his past and what she finds puts her on the run from the truth she must face to save herself and her family. The book is a tangled, high-energy, psychological thriller that will keep you reading all night to the surprising ending. 'My Wife is Missing' is full of complicated characters, misunderstood love, and one surprise after another. Really loved this book. It is a five-star book and a must-read for those who love twisty plots and surprises galore. Thanks to #NetGalley#MyWifeIsMissing for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I was provided a print and audio arc of this book via Netgalley. The audio narration was good, the narrator did a good job with the alternating perspectives and gave the different characters their own voices and personalities so you knew who was speaking when there was dialogue. I did think that the alternating timeline felt a bit disjointed, but if you have read any of my reviews before you know that I am not a fan of timeline jumping. This alternates between Michael and Natalie in the present, and jumps to Natalie in the past before she goes missing. It almost feels like there are 3 points of view instead of 2.

I've been a DJ Palmer fan for quite some time, and I was really looking forward to this book. I think I'm in the minority when I say this isn't my favorite of Palmer's works. It was a decent read, but I found it a little slow paced and repetitive for my taste. I never got that suspenseful feeling as if any single one of the characters was in peril of any sort. If anything Natalie was a danger to herself and the kids.

This follows Michael and his wife Natalie, a couple who are having issues stemming from Nat's insomnia. Anyone who has suffered from insomnia knows that it is miserable. It is so much more than "I didn't sleep well last night" Because of her insomnia and other life stress from work and the kids, Natalie and Michael have hit a rough patch in their marriage. Nat begins to suspect Michael of being unfaithful which only puts more distance between them. Determined to find proof of his affair to protect herself and her kids, Natalie begins her own investigation into her husband and finds more than she bargained for. She hatches a plan to run away and protect her kids while on vacation in NYC, but Michael loves his family and he wants to make sure they are safe. Natalie's insomnia itself almost becomes a suspect in this as she begins to hallucinate and is almost delusional at times. Michael is no angel either as he harbors secrets, making him a convenient suspect and easy target. All of the characters were unlikable, and they were all up to something. You could tell they all hiding something.

While I found some of this book to be formulaic and predictable, I certainly didn't see the final reveal coming. That was a nice twist. I love it when I don't see the ending coming! There were a few red herrings to mislead you and quite a few twists and turns along the way to keep you on your toes. While I didn't enjoy this one as much as I have enjoyed some of Palmer's other works, I would still recommend it. If you like car chases, and domestic thrillers in general I say check this out.

Michael Hart is taking his wife and kids on a much needed break in New York City. After the trip from Boston, he leaves his wife Natalie to get their kids settled in to the hotel room while he goes out to pick up some pizza for them all. And when he gets back, the room is empty.

He double checks the room number, but there is nothing in the room. His wife is gone, his daughter Addie is gone, and his son Bryce is gone. Only his suitcase is left in the closet, but Michael does find Bryce’s stuffed bear in the hallway. So not only were they taken (what other explanation could there be?), but Bryce is going through that without his favorite comfort animal.

Michael checks in with the hotel to make sure they didn’t change rooms, but they know nothing at the front desk. All of his texts and calls to his wife are unanswered. He asks for the manager, who tries to help but has no extra information. He suggests that Michael call the the police, which he does, but the detective who shows up can’t help him. The security footage shows Natalie and the kids leaving on their own, to a car that she had scheduled ahead of time. There were no menacing men with guns nearby. They all look safe and as if they are acting of their own volition, and since there is no custody order that Natalie is violating, she’s free to take the kids with her if she leaves him. There is no crime, so there is nothing the police can do.

Michael heads back home to try to figure out what’s happened, hoping for a call or text, and finally has to face the fact that Natalie has left him without a word, taking his kids somewhere that he doesn’t know about.

Natalie, meanwhile, has planned out an escape route to the home of an old friend. She hasn’t been in touch with her friend in many years, so she’s hoping that Michael won’t think to look for her there. And with what he’s done, she doesn’t care if he’s worried about the kids. She just wants to keep them safe. She wants to keep them safe from him and the secrets that he’s been keeping.

Because Natalie knows about his affair. And when that affair ends suddenly, Natalie believes that Michael killed her. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the secrets that Michael has been keeping from her, so Natalie has no choice but to disappear.

But all this stress has been interfering with Natalie’s ability to sleep. One sleepless night after another is taking its toll. She’d been to her doctor and followed all the suggestions. Pills, teas, hot baths, reading, putting down screens, giving up caffeine—none of it helped her at all. Now she’s on the run and her exhaustion is making it increasingly hard to keep herself and the kids safe. She starts hearing things. And maybe she’s seeing things? But she knows the threat is real—the threat to her family, and the threat to her life.

Will she be able to outrun Michael and his deadly secrets, or will he come after her and make good on those threats?

My Wife Is Missing is the latest thriller from D.J. Palmer. This domestic chiller tells of the rift that can happen in a marriage when there are secrets. Add in the extreme stress of an illness like insomnia, and things get worse. And when you to the point where your insomnia makes you hallucinate, how can you know what’s true and what’s imagined? My Wife Is Missing takes a hard look at what it takes to keep a family together and what can rip it apart.

I have to admit that I struggled with this one. I found Michael hard to believe in. Even before he admitted to readers that he had secrets, I thought that he seemed disconnected with the rest of the family and lacked compassion toward his wife and what she was going through. I thought the premise of the book was good, the plotting was strong. I liked how it bounced around in time, offering up pieces of the puzzle from the past and the present. So for me, My Wife Is Missing is a good thriller, not a great one, but your mileage may vary.

Egalleys for My Wife Is Missing were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Thank you NetGalley, St Martin’s Press and DJ Palmer
As usual DJPalmer does not disappoint, another wonderful read, I was hooked from page 1 and could not put this book down.
I will pick up and read anything from this author.
Highly recommend
5 stars

Suspenseful and twisty, but pretty "meh" in my opinion. Looks like I'm in the minority on this one so it may just be a case of wrong book, wrong time. I was initially hooked and found the premise interesting. I am over the 'unreliable female narrator with mental issues' trope though. The lead in this one suffers from insomnia that produces hallucinations. As a mom, I just couldn't relate and found her actions to be eye-roll worthy. I enjoyed the twists at the end and it came together for me, but took awhile to get there.

I really liked this book but felt at first that the characters, especially Michael Hart was very difficult to understand. It is not until later in the book that readers get to see his depth and what drives him. There are other characters that really stand out to me, so the characters and their journey are what pushed this from a four star to a five star review. Well thought out plot and suspense...pacing was also good. There were plenty of plot twists and bumps to keep me reading too late at night (which is always a good sign that I am enjoying the book.)

Thank you to NetGalley, author D.J. Palmer, and St. Martin's Press for this digital copy for me to read and enjoy. As always, my reviews are voluntary and my opinions are my own.

4.5 Stars

This was a rollercoaster ride from the first page, and I couldn’t put it down! Michael and his family are vacationing in NYC. Michel goes out to get pizza and when he returns his wife and two children are missing.

This was such a good one! It was fast paced and full of suspense. The best part was you think you know what’s going on and who not to trust, and then you’re blindsided and you’re completely wrong. I went into this book with zero expectations and it turned out to be a great thriller! I highly recommend.

A huge thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

While on vacation, Michael Hart returns to the hotel room to find his wife, Natalie, and their children gone. Michael and Natalie have had some problems in their marriage recently, and Natalie’s insomnia hasn’t helped things. Even so, Michael assumes his family has been abducted, and enlists the help of the NYPD. When they look into the situation, it appears Natalie has fled with the children, but why?

This book started off with a bang! Michael arriving back at their hotel after getting pizza and finding his family gone was a great way to get me invested in the story. I did feel the pace slowed down a bit especially once Natalie is on the run. It felt repetitive to me at times, and I was excited once the pace picked up again and the twists began to happen.

Told in dual timelines with both Michael and Natalie’s present day perspectives as well as Natalie’s point of view leading up to the disappearance, I found both narrators unreliable. Throwing in Natalie’s insomnia didn’t help with knowing who or what to trust.

The ending of the book was full of twists and was really fast paced. I had an idea that one of the characters was involved, but not in the way the author took the story. The secrets and lies thrown into the story definitely held my interest and made me need to figure out exactly what was happening.

Read this book if you like cat and mouse chase type thrillers with lots of twists and red herrings thrown in. Thank you to the author, D.J. Palmer, NetGalley, and St. Martin’s Press for advanced copies in exchange for my honest review.

A husband goes in pursuit of his missing wife in this domestic thriller.

When Natalie Hart and her two children leave the hotel room they've reserved for a family vacation in New York, husband Michael goes full on super detective to find them. Why did Natalie escape and what is Michael hiding. Lots of secrets and lies in this crazy drama.

Told in alternating points of view between Natalie and Michael, there's a lot to unpack. First of all, Natalie has been trying to deal with crippling insomnia and the lack of sleep has impaired her thinking to the point that she's apparently having hallucinations and memory problems. I did not think either of those was contagious, but in his storytelling, Michael also seems to have some issues. Neither is reliable as a narrator, and I found that I didn't care for either of the pair. In fact, none of the characters in the book are likeable and the reader has no clue of who has done what to whom. The tale of Michael chasing Natalie across the USA with an NYPD detective in cahoots was a bit of a hard buy in and somewhat ludicrous. A great deal of suspension of disbelief was required.

I found this more irritating than exciting and between Natalie being almost delusional and the reader led to think that Michael is gaslighting her (is this in all the books now) the story just becomes one long slog as I raced to the conclusion to finally get some sort of truth. Even then, the last couple of chapters bordered on complete ridiculousness. I guess if people were open and honest all the time, we'd have no domestic thrillers dealing with husbands and wives. Basically this was a long, drawn out ride with an ending that fell short of my expectations. So 2.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-book ARC to read and review.

Clever, twisty, and well written!

My Wife is Missing is an intricate, perfectly paced thriller that takes us into the life of Michael Hart, a husband and father of two who finds his life turned upside down when he returns from picking up a pizza for dinner only to find his wife and children missing from the hotel and only his son’s beloved bear left behind as evidence that they were ever even there.

The writing is smooth and fluid. The characters are astute, devious, and committed. And the plot unravels briskly into a sinister tale full of twists, turns, manipulation, deception, desperation, jealousy, red herrings, familial drama, marital strife, tragedy, and murder.

Overall, My Wife is Missing is an intricate, crafty, addictive read by Palmer that captivated, satisfied, and highly entertained me and was a good reminder that things are never quite what they seem, and behind closed doors nobody really knows what happens.