The Wife List by J.A. Schneider

Publication Date: February 20, 2023

Description from Goodreads

Has a group of men conspired to murder each other’s wives – figuring their perfect alibis will save them? That is what Beth Kemp starts to suspect, but is she losing her mind? Her husband says he fears so…
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I’ll give this marriage one more try, Beth Kemp thinks. She is a successful crime writer in New York City, who regrets that tension has crept into her relationship with her husband, Brad. He too is a writer who, after early success, finds his career fading.

Brad urges that a move to the country would make them happy again – and safe, especially Beth, to avoid the city’s stress that triggers her severe asthma attacks. Beth wavers, until her close friend is murdered and the friend’s husband has a perfect alibi. She finally accepts that the city with its surging crime has become too hard for her.

The Kemps move to beautiful Sheffield, Connecticut, so perfect it seems too good to be true. It is. When one new friend cries in fear about her husband, and another has a bruise under her eye, Brad tells Beth that she’s overimagining. But when she hears of another wife’s unsolved murder and yet another friend dies mysteriously, Beth suspects the husbands of covering for each other. Brad tells her she’s getting crazy, paranoid.

Then Beth stumbles onto the most devastating shock of all, one she never imagined…

My Review

New York City is overrun with crime and Beth feels nothing but stress there. Not only is she second guessing remaining in her marriage but her asthma has been faring up more than normal. When a move to Connecticut does not help her paranoia, Beth is unsure what is happening. She suspects that there is a list of wives that are being murdered one by one and she does not want to be next.

It is hard to determine if Beth is an unreliable narrator if she really has something to fear. This is another great read from J.A. Schneider and I highly recommend it.

I gave this book 5 crowns.

City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita

Description

A stranded detective tries to solve a murder in a tiny Alaskan town where everyone lives in a single high-rise building, in this gripping debut by an Academy Award–nominated screenwriter.

When a local teenager discovers a severed hand and foot washed up on the shore of the small town of Point Mettier, Alaska, Cara Kennedy is on the case. A detective from Anchorage, she has her own motives for investigating the possible murder in this isolated place, which can be accessed only by a tunnel.

After a blizzard causes the tunnel to close indefinitely, Cara is stuck among the odd and suspicious residents of the town—all 205 of whom live in the same high-rise building and are as icy as the weather. Cara teams up with Point Mettier police officer Joe Barkowski, but before long the investigation is upended by fearsome gang members from a nearby native village.

Haunted by her past, Cara soon discovers that everyone in this town has something to hide. Will she be able to unravel their secrets before she unravels?”

“Heralds the arrival of a major new talent.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

“An offbeat, sharply written thriller.”—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED review

“The claustrophobic atmosphere in this unique one-building town, isolated by tunnels, weather, and secrets, builds a memorable debut crime novel.”—Library Journal, STARRED review

Northern Exposure meets Dexter in this clever thriller in which an isolated community is rocked by a twisted murder, increasingly dark secrets and the terrifying knowledge that the people they always thought they knew are now the ones they should fear the most.”

Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Step Too Far

“Iris Yamashita blasts into the world of crime fiction by doing something spectacular: introducing us to a totally unique location and sub-culture.  A compulsive page-turner that’s both atmospheric and claustrophobic at the same time.” —C.J. Box, #1New York Timesbestselling author ofShadows Reel