My Lovely Wife Audiobook By Samantha Downing cover art

My Lovely Wife

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My Lovely Wife

By: Samantha Downing
Narrated by: David Pittu
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Instant number-one international best seller

USA Today best seller Edgar + ITW Thriller Award nominee for Best First Novel

“Think: Dexter but sexier.” (theSkimm)

“A dark and irresistible debut.” (People)

“Will shock even the savviest suspense readers.” (Real Simple)

Dexter meets Mr. and Mrs. Smith in this wildly compulsive debut thriller about a couple whose 15-year marriage has finally gotten too interesting....

Our love story is simple. I met a gorgeous woman. We fell in love. We had kids. We moved to the suburbs. We told each other our biggest dreams, and our darkest secrets. And then we got bored. We look like a normal couple. We're your neighbors, the parents of your kid's friend, the acquaintances you keep meaning to get dinner with. We all have our secrets to keeping a marriage alive. Ours just happens to be getting away with murder.

©2019 Samantha Downing (P)2019 Penguin Audio Crime Thrillers Psychological Suspense Thriller Thriller & Suspense Fiction Crime Scary Mystery Psychological Suspense

Critic reviews

Number-One Library Reads Pick!

Number-One Library Reads, IndieNext, and Amazon Best of the Month in Thriller

"The thriller we’re most excited to stay up with all night." (Entertainment Weekly)

"If you read one book this year, make it My Lovely Wife." (Betches)

“Wow! My Lovely Wife is a stunner - full of twists, well-drawn characters, and riveting suspense.” (Harlan Coben, number-one New York Times best-selling author)

“Clever. Manipulative. Dark. Disturbing. What more can you ask for?” (Jane Corry, national best-selling author of My Husband’s Wife)

Editorial Review

Just what is a beach read, anyway? As someone who’s lugged Moby-Dick in hardcover to the shore, I’m a firm believer that summer entertainment is whatever you damn well want it to be. But if you ARE looking for a quintessential beach listen, my pick is the bananas-in-the-best-way My Lovely Wife, narrated with just the right dark intensity by in-house fave David Pittu. —Kat J., Audible Editor
Twisted Premise • Unexpected Twists • Excellent Narration • Compelling Villains • Psychological Depth • Perfect Pacing
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I wanted to write a review even before the end of the book! I’ll make this succinct - listen to the book, spend the credit, be awed.

Oh Yes!

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This book was very twisted and yet had none of the gory details of some books. It was highly entertaining and the characters were well developed. Loved it and would recommend to anyone wanting a fun and fast read. I finished this in a couple of days.

Delightful thriller. Slightly predictable but gooood!

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OMG I am so conflicted on this one!!! There was a lot to love about 'My Lovely Wife', and in the end I liked it BUT I have a lot to say on this. Most importantly it is NOT a “cross between Dexter and Mr. and Mrs. Smith” as it is being promoted.

Dexter featured a deranged protagonist yet even he had a motivation for killing his victims. What was the motivation of Millicent and her husband committing murder and kidnapping women? None, apparently. They are just psychotic. Yes this is still a twisty and suspenseful thriller and yes I finished it but I had several issues with the story.

Millicent and her husband live in an unnamed Central Florida suburb. He is a tennis instructor at the local country club and Millicent is a successful realtor. I say Central Florida because there are vague references to the nearby Orlando airport. The Florida heat is mentioned only a handful of times. If you are a tennis instructor in Florida, the weather and the heat should play a more prominent role.

I wasn't thrilled with Millicent's character. Her husband worships her yet I found her to be largely unsympathetic. I can like even the most unsympathetic of characters, but they need to have some redeeming quality! To me, Millicent had no redeeming qualities at all.

This book did grab me from the very clever opening, and did end on quite a zinger. For that, I am grateful. I figured out the twist very early on but what bothered me most I think was the audio book narrator's portrayal of the female characters. They came off as cartoon-ish. The audio narrator was not the perfect choice for this book, even though he is a renowned narrator.

It is no spoiler to say that this couple commits murder for fun. This is a very dark tale, yet sprinkled with black humor throughout. There is no doubt Samantha Downing is a skilled writer and this book did hold my attention to the very end. I found it a little hard to believe that there were SO many unsolved disappearances and murders in such a small community. I will admit that I loved the ending. So if you like your thrillers with a dose of murder and lots of mayhem, then you will like 'My Lovely Wife.'

Murder With a Dose of Mayhem

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I couldn't wait to get into this book, and as soon as I got it, that's exactly what I did. The narrator is amazing. I will check out his other books. The story is riveting, that I can tell you. However - this is where the BUT WAIT comes in - what is wrong with the main characters? The husband, who is an interesting character at first, completely baffles me when his intelligence level is increasingly revealed to be minimal! The wife, well, I have no words for her. As another reviewer pointed out so well, hoping for their happy ending was a stretch for me. That said, it made for an engrossing narration during my commute so it truly served its purpose. Would I recommend it? Yes, definitely! Just beware of a smattering of stupid! Still, I'm OK with stupid and surprising, which this Audible book provided in spades!

Great narration, fascinating story line, but wait-

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While listening to this book, I just couldn’t figure out where the author could possibly go with the ending. It left me stuck reading it, coming back for more! The ending was amazing and definitely worth the read!

Edge of the seat thriller!

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Without giving any spoilers, like other reviewer‘s have done, basically the husband and wife find joy in murdering women. And then of course everything starts to unravel This book had me really engaged for about the first 20 chapters and then I just got mired in a lot of boring details. It picked up a little bit at the end but not enough to make up for the boring middle.

Started great then fell off cliff

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This was a fun, albeit far-fetched, read. The story got a bit tedious at times, and the narrator's voice was irritating when he was speaking as a woman. Overall, it was worth spending a credit. The last line of the book was great. Some people just can't seem to quit when they're ahead!

The last sentence of the book was great!

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This story was insane. Absolutely. Insane. I loved it!

The wife was a piece of work. The husband was a total enabler. The kids had issues (many of them brought on by their murderous parents, but whatev.)

There were some wonderful moving parts and a made-for-TV ending that was totally worth the 10+ hours.

I loved the narration as well. The story is told from the POV of the husband and it had its own challenges. Pittu was seamless.

This book!!!!!

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wow what a really great story!! phenomenal twist. will not be disappointed in choosing this book.

great listen

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The suspense and twists were great until it ended very abruptly. I was almost sure this would be one of the next thriller that I'd enjoy as much as Gone Girl. but the ending spoilt it for me.

Ended too Abruptly

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