read if you like:
🕵🏻 detective procedurals
👩‍❤️‍👨 high school friend reunions
👙 swingers

summary:
This book was interesting! It’s about a group of 3 couples who decide to take a getaway with each other, only for one to end up murdered. The story goes back and forth between their weekend together and the detective investigating the case, who takes her partner to the scene of the crime for the weekend to dig deeper. There are all sorts of secrets between the six friends, including affairs, infertility and financial issues, and while letting loose, they decide to swap spouses for one night of fun. Of course when it’s over, one of them is dead. They then realize they have no service, no landline and their car key is missing. Suddenly they are all suspects with no way out.

This book has a bit of a slow build, but when it gets going, it’s a page turner. I found the detective chapters less thrilling, so switching back and forth made it drag on a little instead of letting the thriller play out. I LOVED the secrets between the friends though. It took me a little bit of time to keep everyone straight (consult the list in the beginning!) but once you do, you can’t help but wonder whose secrets are going to be revealed first. The ending is also INTENSE. It’s long, has its own red herrings, but comes to a close with a complete and thorough explanation of what happened, which I LOVE and appreciate. I probably would have liked this book more without the detective procedural part, but the story is still great and an easy read!

Thanks to Embla Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy, and if you love a good book about a wife swap 😂, check this out when it releases on August 20!

Three couples on a weekend away joke about and then proceed to swap partners. You know, everythings the same in the dark. However, when the lights do come on, one of the men is dead.

This is a little locked-room mystery where no one can be trusted and everyone is a suspect.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

Great storyline that had me hooked, multiple points of view, well written characters, great twists. This is a great fast
Paced thriller that I ended up reading in a day because I couldn’t put it down. Great stormy weather read.

I loved Hangman so was delighted to get this one even though I know Heath's book are dark and brooding! This one centers on Kiara and Elise--a member of a tactical response team and a paramedic who are called to investigate dead bodies discovered in a mountain-top home where three couples were there for a weekend. What they discover is an elaborate "game" concocted by three couples to randomly change partners in the dark without knowing who was with whom. Fortunately--or unfortunately--these people have all known each other for years and have "mixed" histories together so things couldn't go any less according to the plan! But once the place has been cleared, Kiara and Elise return two weeks later for a vacation of their own. Vacillating in time, the novel details the game as well as the two women's relationship and how we may never "really" know the person we think we do!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for this ARC book.
At first I struggled to get into it but it started with the couples and their stories i loved it! I guessed who I thought was the killer straight away but still really enjoyed it. Will definitely recommend!

Holy smokes! I picked up this book up and finished it a little late into the night bc I could not put it down! It was so good! The intricate web of details and hints that Mr Heath weaved came together perfectly for a great story that gave me all the feels! I thought I had it figured out several times, and then it would go the opposite way, literally until the very end. Bravo! Loved it! And I will definitely be looking for more titles by him!
4.5/5 Stars!

Thank you to Netgallery and the publisher for this ARC. The publication date is the 20th August! Wow, what a book it was spine-chillingly terrifying and addictive! I found impossible to put down it was so good I read it in a day!

It was a tale of suspense, lust and betrayal with many shocking twists and turns that kept me eagerly turning the pages!

I’d highly recommend this book if you’re a fan of locked-room thrillers this one is definitely for you! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 stars!

Thanks to Netgalley for this arc but I'm really disappointed because right off the bat I couldn't even get a couple of chapters in without getting distracted because of the format this is in and the dialogue is messed up completely. I'm not trying to hate but this needs an overdo for sure, to make it more easier to read and follow along, this is just a constant stream of text all stringed together. This had such a good premise but I'm just sad it's a dnf for me.

A brilliant twisty, murder mystery combined with dark domestic noir. Four couples holiday in a secluded cabin. Plenty of long held secrets mixed with a dangerous game played amongst them. This book is incredibly isolating and unpredictable and I loved every minute. Highly recommended xx

Told in multiple POVs with different times lines. This book can become confusing with the amount of characters, and keeping each couple sorted. I especially found it confusing when the characters were referred to as Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so because first names were referred to more. Everyone was a suspect and had their own reason if they were indeed the killer. Interesting concept and I was kept on my toes trying to piece together who was behind everything.

Thank you to Netgalley, Embla Books, and Jack Heath for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date for The Wife Swap is August 20, 2024

Thank you for allowing me to preview The Wife Swap. I was unable to finish it. I just couldn't connect with the story or the characters. I wish you great success!

In all honesty, I did find this book quite confusing and overwhelming at times. I felt that there were a lot of different mini storylines included, which was a bit of a mind-struggle to unravel. However, I did like the twists towards the last 20% of the book, and felt that these were cleverly executed.

This is my first read by Jack Heath. It started a bit slow and confusing, but once it picked up, it really picked up!

There are three couples on a getaway in a secluded house, because of course it’s secluded, this is a thriller. When the decision is made for a partner swap, everything gets turned upside down. Can anyone be trusted? Even your own partner?

Thank you to NetGalley, Jack Heath, and Embla Books for this ARC!

A fun trip. three couples, friends since high school, Turns out it was far from fun!
An edgy fast paced thriller which kept me guessing until the very end.
Excellent storyline with well written characters.
My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy.

a very twisty, locked-room murder that definitely kept me guessing until the very end. there were many times I felt that I'd worked it out only to be proven wrong again and again. the pacing was great and I enjoyed the characters, even the more I enjoyable ones. I was hooked right up until the end, and I have well and truly decided I need to read more Jack Heath thrillers.

maybe my next group weekend away will be a little more hesitantly planned after reading this one, although I can assure you that the activities undertaken by the couples in this book will CERTAINLY NOT be happening 😂

Since I’m such a sucker for a locked room mystery I was fiendishly lured into this one, even knowing it would probably be just a standard thriller. Here you’ve got three couples trapped at a mountain retreat and….wife swapping! Well, um, OK. And why is it “wife” swapping? Sounds like some standard 1970s style sexism to me. But I digress.

By the next morning, when the cops show up, led by Elise, going through her own romantic issues, there are two men dead, two women and one man alive and one woman missing. So, helpful advice…wife swapping with your friends when you are stranded IS A REALLY BAD IDEA. I’m going to go a bit further and say it may not be so great with strangers, either, but what do I know?

The book is about what happened during the missing hours. The weird part is that, despite the fact there’s no indication of it anywhere, it seems like there should have been a first book outlining what happened to Elise’s partner, because clearly it could have been a book, and it’s alluded to multiple times. Oh, plus, officer Elise who is assigned to the case treats her girlfriend, who she’s on the outs with to a weekend away AT THE MURDER HOUSE which strikes me as both gross and grossly unethical. So there’s that. I get mad when my husband suggests eating at a chain restaurant.

So, I don’t know. It wasn’t awful. I didn’t figure out who did it. The first book, the one never written, sounds like it might have been good.

#TheWifeSwap #NetGalley
A fab read. 5 ⭐
Three couples, friends since high school, arrive at a remote mountain retreat ready to unwind and catch up. When an innocent remark of swapping partners is made, they laugh it off as a joke. But after a few glasses of wine, it doesn't sound like such a bad idea. With the lights off, it's not really cheating if you don't know who you're with, right?But come morning, one of the husbands is found dead in the sheets. Suspicion grows between the friends, and no one is willing to come forward and confess what they know. With no phone service and the car keys missing, they're now stranded on the mountain with no way down. And the killer is just getting started...
Holy moly what did I just read? Wonderful written Book with lots of cliffhangers. I was hooked.
Thanks to NetGalley and Embla Books for giving me an advance copy.

Some couples would kill for a weekend away... It was supposed to be a fun trip. Three couples, friends since high school, arrive at a remote mountain retreat ready to unwind and catch up. When an innocent remark of swapping partners is made, they laugh it off as a joke. But after a few glasses of wine, it doesn't sound like such a bad idea. With the lights off, it's not really cheating if you don't know who you're with, right?! Well this went a totally different direction than I expected! lol Good read though! This book was exciting, great suspense, intriguing, action, murder, mystery, a fantastic who done it and some crazy twists and turns! The storyline was very interesting and kept me glued to my kindle! I definitely recommend reading this book! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

Wife Swap is a novel by Australian author Jack Heath that follows on from his previous novel, Kill Your Brother, featuring several of the same characters and set in the same rural NSW town of Warrigal. Real estate agent Oscar is happy enough to go along on a weekend in an isolated mountain cottage with two other couples, his wife Isla’s school friends, mostly because he has certain expectations about another of the guests.

There are some close friendships within the couples, a financial planner, a stand-up comedian, a gym owner and a fitness model and, while things aren’t exactly as expected on arrival, they rub along fairly well despite different temperaments, even (eventually) agreeing to partake in a risqué plan. Does that go well? As one of their number is found dead in the hot tub afterwards, clearly not.

When an obviously traumatised wife manages to make her way down the mountain on foot, raving about a murderer on the loose, Detective Sergeant Kiara Lui has charge of her first case. She is able to temper the response of the enthusiastic armed response team enough to recover a very frightened couple from the house, discovering two dead husbands, and learning that one of the wives is missing. And each survivor is telling a different story.

Frustrated by the lack of insight produced by witness interviews, and the delay in results of the DNA collected by Warrigal’s inept crime scene technician, Kiara decides to take her girlfriend, Elise, who desperately needs a break, for a weekend up to the (thoroughly-cleaned) murder house, where she might get a better feel of just what happened. But are they safe in this isolated spot with no mobile phone coverage and one of the party still missing?

Heath uses multiple narrators to tell a tale that is cleverly plotted, with twists that might require pre-booking a chiropractic appointment, well-disguised clues and red herrings to keep the even the most astute reader guessing right up to the exciting climax. The reader will wonder about the reliability of some of that narrative, but even as the story ventures into very dark territory, there is some (quite black) humour to relieve the tension.

Heath’s characters are believable for all their flaws and failings, and he captures the feel of the NSW country town with consummate ease. There are some spoilers for the earlier book, so reading Kill Your Brother first is advised. Readers of his Timothy Blake series know they will be in for a wild ride, and the best advice is to just go with the flow for an action-packed and very entertaining dose of Aussie intrigue.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided NetGalley and Embla Books