This book had an exciting premise but sadly failed to hit the spot for me. Spoilers coming up so please turn away if you haven’t yet read it!

The book begins with a sense of unease - and I will say that Emily Shiner does a great job of creating and building tension - which leads to the titular wife being pushed down the stairs to her death. She complains a bit about her relationship with her husband, but then doesn’t name the person pushing her. So straight away for me I’m thinking - ok, not her husband pushing her down the stairs but maybe we’re meant to think it is. So who else is there? The daughter. The daughter did it.

Then we have like 80% of the book yelling in our faces, literally spelling out that the husband did it. So, we don’t need to be Derren Brown to detect we’re being subjected to a wee bit of misdirection. But that it was the daughter was a let down because I love to be surprised.

But then I can’t really complain about not being surprised because as soon as this is confirmed, the plot goes into absolute fever dream mayhem. Evan knows his daughter is a murderer. He lets her go padding off upstairs to check out an intruder with a knife in her hand and just chills out downstairs. Evan the chief of police. He hears everything they say and that they’re struggling. He chills downstairs. Gah someone’s knocking on the door! I’d better just chill down here for another few minutes and decide what to do. Oh shit Ariel’s bee stabbed and pushed down the stairs.

Now Dakota’s getting it and Evan’s just watching and freaking out. But - remember that time he once freaked out at work as a police officer and froze? So it’s not that weird! It happened once before! Ah shit she’s been stabbed a bunch of times and he didn’t quite get to help. And Miriam just filmed it and couldn’t quite manage to say anything either. She’s still filming it as she’s running away down the stairs. Evan’s still freaking frozen!

Oh man come on. It was entertaining and - sure - surprising - but just plain daft to the point of farce. And I cannot believe the police would just be like “dude. We’ve seen the diaries”. You know, diaries! That pure hard bit of criminal evidence. Surely they’d investigate a tiny bit more than that?

Oof! Anyway. To focus on the positive. The writing was very tense and page-turning. When Ariel was in that bedroom rummaging for evidence I felt a bit sick to my stomach waiting for her to get caught! And it was clever how I really did hate Evan from everyone else’s description of him when in fact he wasn’t AS bad as you first think. (But still pretty rubbish with his affair and constantly thinking about Dakota’s “gorgeous face” even when his daughter just murdered someone.) and the very end was a bit of a surprise too!

But ultimately too much made zero sense. There was no explanation of anyone’s motivations really - why the heck would Jessica kill her mum just because she wanted them to move out? Why was the mum not writing anything in her diary about her daughter being a bit… off? Why was Evan chief of police based on his policing skills? Why did Miriam want Evan to be murdered because her granddaughter was a bit broken hearted by him? What is Ariel’s actual name and why does she still want to live with Jessica when she is blatantly just going to off her at the earliest opportunity? And my biggest why of all - why was it called The Wife in the Photo? The photo viewing was a very unremarkable scene and the wife herself even wasn’t all that central to the story in the end! I kept wondering when we were going to see something significant in a photo that would connect some dots!

I love this author so much! This was the second book of hers that I have read, and they were both phenomenal. This book had so many great twists, making it really hard to put down. I was hooked from the very first page, and stayed hooked until the last. I would highly recommend this book, and author in general!

Super twisty and tense! I literally held my breath at points, and couldn't stop reading until I'd finished the book!

Evan, the Chief of Police, hires Ariel as a housekeeper, to help him and his teenage daughter, Jessica, after the death of his wife and Jessica's mother, Lola.

But Ariel has an alternative motive. EVERYONE is suspicious, EVERYONE has their own agenda and it's going to get messy!

I loved how this book was told in multiple POVs, including Lola's diary and how all of the narrators were unreliable, with the author throwing me off, every time I thought I had it sussed! Twist after jaw-dropping twist, kept the tension running high, my heart in my mouth and my head spinning with all of the possible outcomes.

A final gut-punch of a twist left me wanting more with an epic cliff-hanger ending!

5 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Emily Shiner and Bookouture, for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I adore this book. There aren’t enough good things I could possibly say. I loved that I was hooked from the first page. I love the authors writing style. I love the multiple POVs and the diary entries. I was able to guess the plot twist but the author is so talented, that it didn’t take away from the experience and I still enjoyed it because it was completely unhinged in the best way. I can’t say much about the ending because I don’t want to ruin it but this is a must read! I would give it 10000 stars if I could. I will be reading everything by this author in the future.

Sometimes when you read a book and know early on what the upcoming twists are going to be, the reading is still good as you watch all the pieces fall together. Sometimes, it is torture. I think the difference is whether you are watching a character try and fit the pieces together or whether the author thinks they are fooling the reader. I wasn't fooled. I also was quickly annoyed with the overdramatic chapter endings with trite phrases like "so nobody ever finds out what I've done." None of the characters were likeable, even the ones I think the reader is supposed to like and the father (and police chief) with his 19 year old mistress just grossed me out! His daughter is 14!! In fact, a lot of what he did and didn't do made no sense for someone who is in law enforcement.....and the police chief! Add it all together, and this book was a complete miss for me.

If you are looking for a book with a shocking twist… this is one for you!
Filled with deceit, lies and murder what more could you want.
When the chief of police, Evan buries his wife, he realised he needs a helping hand at home to keep on top of the house, and hires a housekeeper. Thinking this would make his life easier he didn’t think twice about it… but not everything is always as it seems.
The wife in the photo, is a compelling read, with a fantastic set of characters but who can you really trust?

Another twisty little ride from Emily and boy was the ending of this just messed up!

From the off, you know there is something not right. You know this story is not going to be as clear-cut as you believe.

A very small cast of characters, Lola we only meet through diary entries. Evan, head honcho with an air of mystery and threat. Ariel poking her nose where she shouldn’t be and Jessica.....

I did figure out the twist, but the twist after the twist I didn’t expect! It was dark and chilling!!!

I listened to some of this book and it has dual narrators. I loved the female narrator but the male narrator was difficult for me to pay attention to, so I read the last 60% and I couldn’t put the book down!!!

I adore Emily’s writing and she had me on the edge of my seat-belted seat! I couldn’t take my eyes off the pages and blazed through. I need to see the final showdown and see what Emily had in store for me!!

Shocking!

WOWZA! This book was twisted, jaw dropping, shocking, and thrilling! The Wife in the Photo was gripping from the very beginning and never lost its steam. Emily Shiner has outdone herself with this twist filled, page turner!

In the beginning of this book, Lola has died, and her husband Evan and her daughter Jessica are fending for themselves. They could use a little help around the house as Evan is in over his head between work and raising his teenage daughter. Luckily his assistant recommends Ariel, a woman she met at church. Ariel happily accepts the job and gets to work! She has a lot of cleaning to do but that is not all! She has her own reasons for accepting the job, she knows the house hides secrets and once revealed she will be able to prove who killed Lola!

What a thrilling ride. This book had me on the edge of my seat. The diary entries are a very nice touch and I was intrigued while learning what they contained. There is a nice amount of tension in this book which I absolutely love. While reading mysteries, I always try to do my own super sleuthing trying to figure out whodunit. Hats off to Emily Shiner as I did not see that reveal coming! After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I gave a silent applause to Shiner for pulling off the shocking reveal.

I did not want to put this book down. I had both the book and audiobook which made for a fully enjoyable reading experience. The narration of the audiobook was fantastic!

Gripping, shocking, well written, well thought out and perfectly paced! I can’t wait to read what Emily Shiner writes next!

Thank you, Netgalley and bookouture for access to this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Wow, I thought I had it figured out, then the author twists with my mind and threw me off haha.. I loved this book and jumped on the occasion to read other books from the same author ! I loved her writing style and how she twists, plots and all. Even if I was sad for the ending of some characters, and I am wondering if there will be a sequel to this book ? I hope so.

The Wife in The Photo is a psychological thriller that is told in several points of view.

Evan has just lost his wife and he needs someone to help with his daughter so he hires Ariel .

Ariel has her own agenda.

They all have their own motivations as the tension mounts.

Everyone has a secret that will keep you guessing.

The ending well, you will have to read it to make up your own mind.

This was my first but not last book by Emily Shiner.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for a page turning read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to the the ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of The Wife in the Photo by Emily Shiner. This book was amazing. It was a psychological thriller that kept me guessing as to what was going to happen. It had many twists as well as being a little twisted itself. I kept wanting to pick it up to continue to read it. I would definitely recommend this book to others. I gave it a 5 out of 5 star rating.

A gripping story with an ending I did not expect!
Told from 3 point of views - we see the husband, wife and the hired help who is trying to find out the truth.
A good read that I really enjoyed reading!

Wow,wow wow did not see that coming at all,just when you think you have it figured then Bam your totally wrong.

Suspenseful, gripping and totally all consuming

Highly recommended

Read this if you like:
diary entries
messed up families
women who stick together
The Housemaid duology by Freida McFadden
dual POV
mindgames

This story starts with an interesting prologue where the first murder happens without knowing who the murderer is. Such a strong start with a lot of tension and questions are totally my cup of tea but also a possible hiccup because mostly after a strong start it takes a while before the story starts going again as you get back in time to learn more about what went off prior to the events of the epilogue. This was unfortunately the case here, and till the middle of the storyline most MCs stayed very superficial. Because of this, it took a while to empathize with the MCs and to fully invest into the story as it lacked some depth for a while.

The diary entries are a good addition to the storyline and they also make you doubt who to trust. These entries speed up the whole story and are playing games with your mind which lifts the tension in a good way eventually.

At the end it felt a bit mixed up for me because there was just TOO much speed and TOO much happening all at once which caused some implausibility. But it is and stays fiction after all, and I was surprised by some of the plot twists (I did figure out who the killer was) due to the mind games the story plays with you.

I love nothing more than a book that can play games with my mind and surprise me with some unseen & shocking twists, which is why I closed this book at the end with a positive vibe and rated it a bit higher than I normally would with other slowburn thrillers.


Thank you @netgalley & @bookouture for this ARC.

Pay for the whole seat but you will only need the edge!!

Told from three different POVs: Evan (the husband of the wife in the photo), Ariel (hired help who is dying to get closer to the truth) and, my personal favorite, journal entries from Lola (the wife in the photo). From the beginning, it’s unclear how Ariel relates to Lola and why she is so interested in discovering the truth about Lola’s murder and it’s that right there that made me want to keep reading. Why does she care so much?
I loved that every character in this book was clearly keeping some kind of dirty little secret. It’s those kinds of thrillers that make me race to the end because I can’t stand waiting another second to find out what those secrets are and this one was no different.
As an avid reader of these types of books, the plot twists were fairly obvious and stuck out from a mile away. Still, this was an intoxicating psychological thriller and I was obsessively turning the pages until the very end.

A father and daughter are left living alone after the suspicious death of the mother of the family, the father deciding to hire Ariel to take care of the house, who may or may not have reasons to be there besides work. While I found the book started a bit slow, it picked up the pace and I loved the ending. I also highlight positively that the different POVs made me doubt my theories several times.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #Bookouture and Emily Shiner for the opportunity to read an advance copy of The Wife in the Photo, to be published September 7, 2023. A psychological thriller that leaves you stunned. It’s apparent that the housekeeper has her own agenda when she goes to work for the Chief of Police, but her motives are kept secret until near the end. In addition, her plans to get revenge are met with disaster. The twists and turns were phenomenal as was the shocking conclusion. 5/5 Stars. #NetGalley #Bookouture #EmilyShiner #TheWifeinthePhoto

This is my first time reading a book by this author so I went in open and without any expectations.
This book is a straight forward “who done it”.
Lola, the wife dies in a fall at her home where she lives with her husband, Evan, and daughter, Jessica. Dunnn Dunn dunnn here comes the twist !! Lola was planning on leaving her husband Evan because she suspected an affair and wanted to take their daughter Jessica with her right before her death. AND extra “shock” Evan just happens to be the chief of Police.
Evan becomes overwhelmed and at the suggestion of a family friend, Miriam hires Ariel to help out around the house. Suspicions yet?
Ariel is determined to prove that Lola’s death was no incident no matter what.
This boom is told from different POVs , Ariel, Evan, and Lola (via her diary entries before her death).

This book was just ok to me. It was slow paced, had some unrealistic occurrences, results, and I found myself wanting to shake Ariel to USE her head ! The ending was again just ok to me.

A big thank you to the Author, Netgalley, and Bookouture for an ARC !

I really liked the storyline for this book. A suspicious fall, a housekeeper looking for answers and revenge, a cheating husband. The let down was the big “twist” was blatantly obvious from the beginning. Way too many little “hints” at it. I was still enjoying the book even knowing the twist up until the ending. The big action scene was too ridiculous and far fetched to be believable. Not a bad book but definitely not one of my favorites.

The Wife in the Photo is an absolute page turner. I couldn't put it down! My heart was pounding as I was devouring this book. Clear your schedule because once you start reading this book, you won't be able to put it down. There were so many twists and turns, you won't see what's coming.