Fran Hal has a glamorous job at a London magazine, close friends, and
is recovering from the breakup of a relationship with Nick Jason. He is
a handsome, bad boy who owns a nightclub. For a while, Fran enjoyed
the flash and excitement of that exciting life with Nick but she soon
became disenchanted. She became fed up with his shady deals and
even shadier business associates and broke off their relationship. At a
dinner given by her BFF, Jo, she meets Nathan and her world is turned
upside down. They are totally attracted to each other and have a
whirlwind courtship. In two months, they are married and Fran is
pregnant. When their daughter Emme is four years old, their son, Ben,
just four months old, Nathan talks Fran into moving to rural Oakenham
to a rundown farm that Nathan bought at a very cheap price. He tells
her he had grown up not far from there and thinks it will be a new
beginning for them, their family, and their marriage. Nathan is often
away from home on business, telling Fran about the many conventions
he has to attend for his building business. When he is home, he goes
out alone frequently. He is very controlling, secretive and mysterious.
He keeps Fran at home, isolated and alone. Promises to fix the house
go unanswered, her pleas to return to work are unacceptable to
Nathan, and slowly their relationship cools, especially their sex life.
One night Ben's crying awakens Fran and she reaches for her husband
and he is not there. Looking at the clock she is amazed at the time,
gets up and begins to search the house for him. She goes outdoors and
finds his bloody body in a ditch. He is very cold and very dead. Two
inspectors answer her call for help and the investigation by two
uncaring, mean, and harassing law officials begin and become a
nightmare for Fran. She is their only witness, and they are convinced
she murdered her husband. Under constant police scrutiny, I was upset
by their constant unannounced appearances and their manner toward
Fran was shoddy and disgusting. Gossip runs rampant in this tiny town,
and stories about Fran having an affair with a man surfaces and
convinces the inspector that Fran is guilty. Fran holds many secrets
and slowly but surely discovers the lies, and betrayals from her
husband who she finds she did not know at all. Who is the murderer?
Why? It's a plot that leads in so many directions and each is filled with
more questions.
Christobel Kent writes a suspense-filled domestic thriller. While I did
not care for Fran and found her to be weak and naive, the rest of the
story is filled with so many characters, clues, twists and turns to keep
you guessing. It is hard to put this book down. The ending, however, is
unexpected and the killer never entered my list of suspects. Some of
the sub-plots are weird and those characters are nasty. On the top of
my list of characters who you love to hate are the chief investigator,
Doug Gerard, and his assistant, both of whom act without any regard
for Fran and many times in an illegal manner. This wasn't my favorite
read because many of the characters were hard to like, but I will say
there were some interesting parts to the story. Enough to continue to
read and look forward to more books by Christobel Kent.
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER “Be careful, Fran,” the man said quietly. “About what you
think you know.”
In a dilapidated farmhouse out in the vast waterlogged
plains of the English Fenlands, Fran awakes groggily to her
baby’s cries one February night and finds the bed empty
beside her. Her husband, Nathan, is gone.
Moving uneasily through the drafty rooms, searching for her
husband, Fran soon makes a devastating discovery that upends
her marriage and any semblance of safety. As she tries
desperately to make sense of what happened to Nathan, Fran
is forced to delve dangerously into the undercurrents of his
claustrophobic hometown and question how well she knew him
in the first place. Fran, increasingly isolated, grows
paranoid—but Nathan isn’t the only one hiding something.
Though she can’t tell a soul, Fran is shielding a damning
secret of her own: a hazy, dreamlike memory from the night
of Nathan’s disappearance that might be the key to it all.
From the bestselling author of The Crooked House
comes an utterly gripping psychological thriller spanning
the traditions of Daphne du Maurier and S. J. Watson.
Christobel Kent’s The Loving Husband is spooky and
skillfully written, dragging readers deep into the
unsettling world of the Fens and into a marriage of
half-truths and past lives, where no one can be
trusted—especially not your spouse.
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