The Perfect Wife - J P Delaney

Description

THE ENTHRALLING NEW PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE GIRL BEFORE

"There's something I have to explain, my love," he says, taking your hand in his. "That wasn't a dream. It was an upload."

Abbie wakes in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. The man by her side explains that he's her husband. He's a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley's most innovative startups. He tells Abbie she's a gifted artist, a doting mother to their young son, and the perfect wife.

Five years ago, she suffered a terrible accident. Her return from the abyss is a miracle of science, a breakthrough in artificial intelligence that has taken him half a decade to achieve.

But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband's motives - and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together for ever? And what really happened to her, half a decade ago?

Review

This is the third book by J P Delaney that I've read and I think he is becoming my new favourite author. Just how he keeps coming up with these ingenious psychological thriller plots I do not know, but I hope he has lots more to come.

The book begins with Abbie waking up and she thinks maybe she's been in an accident, is she in a hospital? Very quickly her husband is by her side reassuring her, she's fine. She's not been dreaming just experiencing an upload! It's been six years since he last saw her alive.

I was hooked straightaway and proceeded to read the book in one day - I just couldn't put it down. I loved the mix of sci -fi, artificial intelligence and computer talk. 

Although we believe Abbie in the present day to be AI the author had me willing her to succeed in everything she did. At one point she makes bouillabaisse - fish stew. At first I couldn't understand the precision in which the stages she goes through to make this dish are set out. I understood perfectly later on as it made me feel her pain so much more. I began to form an attachment to her character as she began to grow and discover more about the "real" Abbie. She was beginning to make her own decisions, most unlike a Stepford Wife. 

Throughout the book we have flashbacks as to how Abbie came to be in Tim's life. These chapters aren't annotated to show they are a flashback, but I found it easy to realise that we were delving back into the past. The book also deals with autism, as Abbie's son Danny is autistic. I thought this was done very well and rang true. At the end of the book  the acknowledgements reveal that author has a son who is autistic and has obviously based those parts of the book on his own real life experiences.

There are plenty of twists and just when I thought there would be no more it all changed again - brilliantly. This is a real page turner of a book.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.