THE OTHER WOMAN

4 stars out of 5

I have to admit that a sinking feeling started to creep over me after the first couple of chapters. Not again, I said to myself - another of those whiny, paranoid wives/girlfriends/lovers who just can't dredge up the intestinal fortitude to extricate themselves from a situation that clearly is headed for disaster. And to a certain extent, that feeling never left (I'm just too independent and bull-headed, I guess, to identify with these types of females). Nevertheless, the intrigue - or more to the point, curiosity over what was really going on here - pretty much glued to my Kindle until the whole thing was over. 

The wronged woman - not necessarily to be confused with the "other" one - is Emily Havistock. She's a successful, relatively independent woman who, a human resources conference, meets Adam Banks and (surprise!) they fall in love. Soon, Emily leaves the apartment she shares with her friend Pippa and moves in with Adam; her other friend, the very gay Seb, has a few misgivings about that situation, but he's such a close buddy that he goes along with it if only to keep an eye on Emily.

At first, Adam balks at having Emily meet his mother, but he finally relents. And it is at that meeting that seeds of doubt start planting themselves in Emily's head. Could it be that Adam is a momma's boy - and momma will do anything to keep him that way? Honestly, any fully grown woman who insists on being called "Pammie" would have raised my hackles immediately and made me run the other way fast. But not so Emily, who is intent on making Adam put her first (and that may well be her first mistake; as my late mother used to say, he's not worth the powder and lead it would take to blow him up). But hey; the show must go on.

And on it does, with encounter after encounter with the conniving Pammie, leaving Emily reeling and plotting other ways to keep her man. But at every turn, she's outsmarted; Pammie, it seems, is always one step ahead of Emily. There is little else I can say without giving away too much except that not everything is as it seems (but then the book is billed as a "psychological thriller," so that's to be expected). Despite a fast-paced, somewhat surprising ending, I really don't agree with the thriller part, but the head games really are something else. Definitely worth reading - many thanks to the publisher (via NetGalley) for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

The Other Woman by Sandie Jones (Minotaur Books, August 2018); 304 pp.