I usually love this author's books, but this one wasn't for me. I found it slow and the characters were unlikeable.

Addison is mean, snarky, and seems totally unlikeable until you meet the other characters in this twisted story of narcissism and greed. What the Wife Knew sets the bar high for domestic thrillers and you will not want to stop reading until you know all of the dirty secrets that have been hidden for years.

What a wild ride and nothing that I was expected. Kane came in hot and did not stop the story. I loved the plot and the characters though not fully developed-- did they need to been?

Book Title: What the Wife Knew
Author: Darby Kane
Format: 🎧
Narrators: Helen Laser and Andrew Eide
Publisher: Harper Audio Adult/Harper Audio
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: December 10, 2024
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Pages 368

Dr. Richmond Dougherty a famous and popular pediatric surgeon and his twenty-year old wife Addison were married for 97 days, when he died under suspicious circumstances.
Kathryn Dougherty first wife is well known in society circles as well as with and the police plays the ‘poor me’ role and throws suspicion on Addison.

Story starts
Her – Present day - Addison’s POV
Then half way in, we hear from
Him - Past - Richmond’s POV.
We learn that every horrible thought Addison has about Richmond is oh so true.
He confesses his sins aka murders and yes he is truly despicable.

We knew the marriage was not one of love but blackmail. We learn more details,

I love psychological thrillers but not a fan of excessive profanity. This story has more than an average amount of foul mouth, unlikeable characters for my reading pleasure. True I have no doubt their language is their normal way to talk.
I hung in there as there were great reviews from readers I trust so was hopeful the ending was going to save this for me.

Addison did get to the point of me caring about her. She could be sooo clever. She would utter a very intelligent sentence and then the next one full of profanity.

However~ Yes! The ending was great!!!

Plus the audiobook narrators were great. Helen Laser was fantastic in her performance of Addison!

Want to thank NetGalley and Harper Audio for granting me this early audiobook.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for December 10, 2024.

Enjoyed Darby Kane's previous books and was excited to get access to her latest novel! This was an interesting domestic thriller with so many surprises. The story was dark and twisty. However, the chapter titles were a little confusing when listening to it as an audiobook book.

Oh, but which wife knew what? I had most of it figured out (I try to do that) but it was a great story with layer after layer of deception. A great read!

So many family-related twists! Who is the father?? Are you sure?? Darby Kane's latest work is intriguing and keeps you reading. When I first started reading I thought it would be about two doctors who were vying for the same position, but I was very wrong. This is a fun read with supremely toxic families and scenes of near incest (none happens thank goodness). I would recommend this to fans of Tarryn Fisher and B.A. Paris.