I really enjoyed reading this book. It kept me up late into the night because it had my attention completely consumed by the story.
A consequence of reading a lot is that predictions get made about the direction of a story. I had quite a few predictions for this one and all of them were wrong! It was a refreshing feeling when the book finished in a way that I had not imagined. For those that enjoy a well-written mystery, this is one to pick up.

I'm having a difficult time deciding how to rate and review the thriller My Wife Is Missing by DJ Palmer.

The beginning pulled me right in: husband Michael arrives at his family's hotel room with carry-out pizza, only to find that his wife Natalie and their two children are missing, along with their luggage. Were they kidnapped? Did they run away? Of course Michael gets the local police involved. Of course Michael has secrets he doesn't want the police to uncover. He's devastated and worried, but also a bit cagey and possibly guilty of .... something (but what?). Is Michael a reliable narrator?

The dialogue then switches to Natalie. She suffers from insomnia, but only because she has discovered terrible secrets about Michael. She will do whatever it takes to save herself and her children, but with her paranoia and hallucinations, is Natalie a reliable narrator?

The point of view alternates between Michael and Natalie throughout the book, and also bounces from "before" to "present." Unfortunately, the story moves very slowly; I guess some reviewers would call this a "slow burn," but I wish it had been more fast-paced. Additionally, I really disliked Michael's "justification" of some of his previous bad choices.

What I did love was the way the story wrapped up toward the end! Wow! I'm tacking on an extra star simply because the wrap-up was clever and amazing!

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This novel brings unreliable narrators and building suspense surrounding an almost whodunnit narrative as a husband searches for a wife whose run with the kids.

I liked that I found myself wanting to know how it ended and debating different things like psychosis and pathological killers. I didn't connect with any of the characters but I do tend to read this genre more as an observer than someone invested in the people. It's like my evening reality TV shows; there for the plot twists.

While I definitely did not see the ending coming I did feel the pacing was a bit off when the climax hit. We spent a lot of time going between the POVs of Natalie on the run and Michael trying to get to her that when we come to the pivot point it felt like a side note. I'm not so sure if I enjoyed the overall plot twist considering how invested I was when my train of thought was very stuck to the path it was on. It totally fit though and I can't deny that I'm still thinking on it.

This is a mix of secrets and accusations that pulls you along wondering who is in the right or wrong. Palmer did an excellent job making me second guess my ideas and kept me tethered to the storyline in anticipation. Thank you St. Martin's Press for the gifted digital copy in exchange for a review. All thoughts are my own.

✨My wife is missing✨

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you to @djpalmerauthor and @stmartinspress for sending me a copy of this book to read and review 💛

Okay in full transparency, if I walked past this book in a bookstore I would not have given it a second glance 😬🥲 However, maybe it really is what’s on the inside that counts! While this cover was not my favourite, I loved this story…. Maybe even enough to say that it’s my favourite mystery of 2022 thus far 👀🙊

This book was so necessarily stressful and dramatic which is exactly why I loved it!
Michael and Natalie are having issues in their marriage and decide to go on a family trip to New York. But when Michael returns to their hotel and finds that his wife and kids are missing the story really starts to get interesting. There is a torrid affair, a secret past and a few murders thrown in to keep things interesting.

When I first started reading this novel, I was under the impression that Natalie ran away (like planned to change her identity and disappear ran away) because Michael was a serial cheater. And while I am one for theatrics, I did feel like this could all have been resolved with a divorce and a few conversations, but as I kept reading everything started to make sense 😭

Anyways…… this novel was pretty wild and I did not see the end coming! The only thing I would change *spoiler* is that I hate a happy ending in a murder mystery. For some reason, I get immense pleasure from an ending with a massive reveal and then a cliffhanger. This ending was wrapped up a bit too perfect/happy for me….. and there was absolutely nothing left unsaid.

#Mystery #thriller #mysterythriller #suspensethriller #psychologicalthriller #bipocbookstagram #mywifeismissing #smpinfluencers

My Wife Is Missing had potential but it missed the mark for me. I have read two other books by this author, with The New Husband being my favorite. I compare any books by this author to The New Husband. Michael and Natalie Hart have a marriage that isn't working. Natalie is suffering from a debilitating bought of insomnia. I really felt for her. Michael was a suspected of cheating and was a MAJOR gaslighter. I did not like him at all. I'm not sure I liked Natalie much either but her character was at least tolerable.

The secrecy and mystery surrounding Michael seemed unnecessary and Nancy was in a constant state of hysteria. This was just an okay read. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Whoa! Did I just get whiplash from this thrilling roller coaster ride of awesomeness?! So many twists you won’t ever see coming.

What an intense, thrilling, heart pounding read!! I HIGHLY recommend this one!!

Thank you to the publisher for a physical copy, an e-arc and an audiobook. And yes I experienced them all and enjoyed every last one!! The narration made me feel like I was right there, as I read along with the physical book and reading the e-arc at night elevated the entire reading experience. Absolutely loved this one!! Can’t wait to see what DJ Palmer comes up with next! 5 truly heart pounding and captivating stars!!

So, I have never read a book by DJ Palmer before and this one was quite the ride. Natalie and Michael are taking a family vacation to NY when Natalie and the kids disappear. Was there foul play or was it intentional? Natalie has been a bit off suffering from prolonged insomnia. Maybe someone took them or maybe she found out the secret Michael has been trying to hide all this time and it drove her to flee. The book changes points of view from past to present and between Natalie and Michael as it unwinds. Is Michael the monster Natalie thinks he is or is it all a product of her sleep deprived brain? So, both of these characters are very flawed people and they are not particularly likeable. You really feel bad for the kids here. The story had quite a few twists and a very unexpected ending. Maybe a little longer than it needed to be but I liked it. Will definitely try this author again.

Thank you Net Galley for an ARC of My Wife Is Missing by D.J. Palmer. This is a mystery that has many twists and turns. This one was a lot of fun. The narrator was awesome.

This one was a miss for me. It felt way too long and repetitive in the middle. Then the ending just felt so far fetched to me - nope. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

3.5 stars.

This is a twisty story that I found to be entertaining though a bit far-fetched.

The story is about Michael who comes to back to the hotel where he is vacationing with his family to find his wife and kids are missing. His wife Natalie, who has been suffering from severe insomnia, appears to have taken the kids and ran away. Michael immediately begins to search for them, worried that Natalie is not in a fit state of mind to care for the kids. Meanwhile, Natalie has just found out that her husband has done something terrible, and she knows that she and the kids must get away from him in order to be safe. It's a he said, she said kind of story where it is difficult to know who to trust?

This book immediately grabbed my attention from the start. It's an interesting premise, and it really is hard to predict what is going to happen or who is trustworthy. But the story also dragged on for me towards the end and felt repetitive. Some things that happen, especially as the final twists are revealed, seem really unbelievable. But I was willing to just go with it and go along for the ride with this one. It was a decent thriller and definitely one that kept me guessing until the end.

I tried really hard to love this book. It has everything I love in a mystery/thriller - dual POV, unreliable narrators, timeline jumps. But I just couldn't figure out a way to care about either of the adults in this marraige. Both husband and wife felt like shitty people, and I ultimately didn't want either of them to be the better person, or to be the bad guy. It was impossible for me to care about what was happening in this novel, and I ended up DNF'ing it about 40% through.

This one gave me Gone Girl vibes in a good way! I never knew who to believe, I went back and forth throughout the whole book, and I trusted no one. It was definitely a good thriller that kept you captivated and never wanting to put the book down.

What do you do when you wake up alone in a strange hotel room, your wife and children gone without a trace, in a strange city, and no one seems to understand the urgency of the situation?

I was really excited by the premise and really wanted to love this one, but unfortunately it fell flat. I didn't connect with the characters and the story had a really hard time holding my attention.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I have yet to be disappointed by a book from D.J. Palmer. I was sent an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

As always, Palmer creates quite the setup with twists and turns. Nothing is ever to be expected with his writing. Natalie and Michael are a married couple raising two children. Recently Natalie has been suffering from severe insomnia as she believes her husband is having an affair with one of her coworkers. So, Natalie takes the kids and disappears while on a family vacation she planned after sending Michael to get pizza. The question is why is she running if he is just having an affair (which he repeatedly denies).

Told through alternating points of view and past/present timelines, this will take you on a cross country wild ride. Not only will you be feeling the whiplash of the escape, you will also be left feeling lost at every single turn. Not everything is as it seems.

I was pleasantly surprised by how unpredictable this one was. There was one piece that I picked up on early on, but it did not change all of the other unexpected surprises. Definitely not an ending that I saw coming and the suspense built throughout the entire story. I cannot wait to see what Palmer provides us with next.

I didn't really know what to expect when I started My Wife Is Missing, as it was my first book by this author, but I was pleasantly surprised!

The book is told from two perspectives--Natalie and Michael. What kept this book really interesting is you're dealing with not one, but two (potentially) unreliable narrators. Natalie has been suffering from insomnia, which can have some awful affects on people--hallucinations, memory lapse, psychosis. Throughout the book, you don't really know if Natalie's observations are accurate, or if they're the result of her insomnia. Michael also seems to be hiding something very significant from his past. The reader doesn't really know if Michael's perspective can be trusted--and what is he hiding?

The stakes are high in this roller coaster of a book. I thought it was a really fun read, with lots of surprising twists throughout. The ending had me shocked, and I never saw it coming. I would certainly recommend this one!

D.J. Palmer shows how far a man will go in order to find his family, even if they don't want to be found:

A husband's worst nightmare comes true. While on vacation in NYC Micheal goes out to get pizza for his family and when he returns to the hotel they are all missing. The only thing left behind is his son's favourite Teddy Bear. Convinced they have been kidnapped Michael quickly contacts the police but is soon proven wrong by security camera footage, the family left of their own free will. Now things turn toward Michael, why would his wife flee with their children? All Michael knows is that he needs to find his family, his wife has been unstable lately with insomina issues and he thinks that is what has caused her to flee and could be a danger to herself and the kids.

This is the second book that I have read by Palmer and her first book The perfect Daughter, was almost the perfect book for me, so I had high hopes for this book as well. I will say that it had me hooked from the very beginning with Michael returning home to discover that his wife and children are missing and then getting the perspective of Natalie and where they were/why but my overall investment of the book waned as the book went on. It lost the suspense as the farther we went into the book and it felt like all Natalie did was drive, drive, drive and then drive some more, tell us that Natalie suffers from insomnia but never really address this aspect fully in the book. She doesn't know what is there and what is not but this unique aspect was under utilized throughout the book. The last 25 % of the book are fairly intense as everything and everyone seem to come together at once and while I was able to predict part of the ending I was not able to see the full twist that Palmer had coming.

I keep debating whether I like how this story was laid out with the present and before. Normally I like these POV but I'm not sure it worked entirely for this book or maybe there was just a few too name of the before POV of Natalie where more of her insomnia instances are established (but never fully explored...sorry if I keep repeating myself). Michael and Natalie are both unreliable characters in the book, Natalie due to her mental health and Michael due to secrets he is keeping. And can you really know the person that you love.

This was a good book, it kept me entertained but it did slow down quite a bit and get repetitive near the middle of the book, which caused the story to lag. I like the twists that Palmer came up with in the end story and I couldn't actually figure it all out. I look forward to reading more by Palmer.

Enjoy!!!

Wow, just wow. I don't think I was mentally prepared for this as I just welcomed a baby in early April but I couldn't put it down. I needed to know what happened. Well done by the author.

My Wife is Missing is a fast-moving psychological thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Natalie and Michael have some martial/personal issues, and they decide to take a trip to New York City to reconnect. While Michael is out getting dinner, Natalie takes the kids and disappears. Michael is confused, angry, and concerned. Why? Because Natalie has had insomnia, and he fears the lack of sleep has made her irrational. What Michael doesn’t know is that Natalie has discovered some of Michael’s long-buried secrets, and those secrets have scared her enough to run. But hindering her is her severe insomnia, and she begins to wonder if what she saw and discovered were hallucinations brought on by it. Can Natalie trust herself to get to somewhere safe? Will Michael find her? Will she find out if what she saw/found out is the truth or hallucinations?

I was immediately intrigued by the blurb of this book. I don’t think I have ever read a book where insomnia was a huge and prevalent part of the plotline. I didn’t realize that severe insomnia could result in hallucinations/delusions.

Natalie was such an unreliable character, and I loved it. Her insomnia started when she realized Michael was cheating on her, and it kept getting worse throughout the book. I loved reading her detective work into Michael’s past and his affair. I also loved that when she decided to make a move, she made up her mind and did it. I was cheering for her as she out maneuvered Michael time and time again (even as exhausted as she was).

I wouldn’t say I liked Michael. But, he did gain a little bit of my respect with his detective skills. Even though Natalie was one step ahead of him for 90% of the book, he was close enough to get her a couple of times.

The storyline with Natalie, the kids, her insomnia, and being on the run kept me on the edge of my seat. I was internally cheering her on and wanting her to get to her final destination without Michael finding her. I was a little disappointed with how it ended, but my disappointment was short-lived. It was because the author brought this storyline and the storyline with Michael’s cheating/his past together, and it EXPLODED!!

Michael’s storyline, cheating, and past were well written. Again, it kept me glued to my Kindle. A twist to the cheating storyline and the story about Michael’s history took me by surprise.

The twists in the storylines made the book. I was not expecting either of them. When they both made their appearances (one towards the end and one at the very end), my mouth dropped open. I couldn’t believe that the author went where he did with both twists.

The end of My Wife is Missing was good. The author was able to wrap up all of the storylines in a way that both shocked and pleased me. I was happy to see that at least one of the main characters would have a happy life. But at the same time, I wish the author could have redeemed the other main character somehow. That would have made the book so much better for me.

I would recommend My Wife is Missing to anyone over 21. There is violence, language, and some mild sexual situations.

I would gladly give this book a 5-star rating except for the final few pages. Throughout the entire book, from the first paragraph on, I was hooked. You can’t trust anything anyone says, the wife is trying to escape a dangerous relationship, the husband is right down there with a mean stray dog, and the kids are being dragged all over Kingdom Come. There are some really good twists, close calls, excellent character development, and lots of fun tension. I absolutely loved this book.
Until the final pages. I can’t explain why because I’m a firm believer in NO spoilers, so mum’s the word for now. I know we all have different opinions, and I may be too callous and untrusting to lap up the cheesy ending. Read it and let me know if it affects you the same way.
Sincere thanks to St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is May 10, 2022.

Its a wild read, one you can't put down. Definitely one of D.J. Palmer's best. Lots of twists and turns. Secrets, dark pasts, delusions, fear. Such an incredible story.