Audiobook narrated by Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne, Lauren Fortgang

The Wife Upstairs introduces us to Jane, a down on her luck dog walker who finds things turning around quickly when she meets a man who lives in the wealthy neighborhood she works in.

At the beginning of this book, I was wondering how I was going to get through such an insufferable character’s narrative. She seemed to hate everyone, and it grated on my nerves. I’m not sure what happened...but all of a sudden, I started eating it up. It might have had something to do with the rich people drama, because that is something I love. As I mentioned before, Jane was not a likable character, but it was obvious from the beginning she had a secret, and of course I wanted to know what it was. I will say that she did get more likable as the book went on, and I think that can be credited to the fact that more of her past and insecurities were revealed as her relationship with Eddie progressed. Eddie’s character was so intriguing. It was obvious that he had secrets, too, but just how deadly they were remained to be seen.

The main mystery of this book surrounds Eddie’s dead wife and her best friend. Did they just fall overboard a boat in the middle of the night, or was there foul play involved? There was so much going on, and throughout this book, I had so many theories. One of them did pan out, but I almost consider it negligible, because I had so many that one of them was bound to have some credence. My theories were constantly changing because so much kept happening. 

I thought the secondary characters in this book were very well done. I could just picture Jane’s creepy roommate, John. I could see how oily he was, how smarmy, and he made my skin crawl whenever he was mentioned. But even with as creepy as he was, his character was so vivid. I also really liked the wives in the neighborhood, former employers of Jane, and how she found friends and family with them she wasn’t expecting. I like that they weren’t just ‘write off’ rich characters for the author, but they were given more depth.

This book flew right by, and I enjoyed every minute of it; I’m so excited to see what Rachel Hawkins has next for Mystery/Thriller readers. The Wife Upstairs was a twisty-turny read that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Narration: This book was narrated by Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne, Lauren Fortgang, and they all did a phenomenal job. I’ve listened to all of these narrators previously and enjoyed their works. I thought they each did their characters wonderfully, but I would say that Emily Shaffer really shone as Jane. She conveyed the bitterness and jealousy so well. If I knew a book on my TBR had any of these narrators, it would be the icing on the cake, and I’d be inclined to go the audio route.