05/23/2022
At the start of this meandering domestic thriller from bestseller White (The Fiancée), Emma Hawke, the owner of a business research company specializing in forecasting trends, is awakened late one night by New York City police detectives knocking at the door of her Madison, N.J., home. Her husband, Derrick Rand, was shot and killed in SoHo a few hours earlier. The case is never solved, and Emma has never admitted to anyone “how deeply troubled her marriage had been.” Twenty-seven months later, Emma has married again—to genial widower Tom Halliday, the owner of an advertising firm—and moved to Westport, Conn., “a town that’s part well-heeled suburb, part old New England village.” Her business is thriving, and she’s set on making new friends. Then, the New York police come knocking again, this time to inform her that they’re reopening the investigation into Derrick’s death. Another murder, embezzlement, a long-hidden fraud, and a petulant stepchild are added to the mix in an unsuccessful attempt to keep tension high. Those looking for nail-biting suspense should look elsewhere. Hopefully, White will return to form next time. Agent: Sandra Dijkstra, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. (June)
Immersive, spellbinding thriller about a woman questioning everything—including her husband. In Kate White’s perfectly plotted novel, it’s impossible to predict what will happen next.” — Samantha Downing, internationally bestselling author of My Lovely Wife
"Intricately plotted and suspenseful. THE SECOND HUSBAND is a terrific book, packed with surprises and a nail-biting conclusion." — Sarah Pekkanen, New York Times bestselling co-author of The Golden Couple
“THE SECOND HUSBAND is suspense at its most addictive. The pages turn in a blur. You won’t put this one down.” — Michele Campbell, internationally bestselling author of It’s Always the Husband
“Kate White continues to build her fan base with another page turner, the perfect read for the beach, the mountains, and everywhere in between. Besides an intriguing mystery, White creates interesting characters that may remind us, for better or worse, of family and friends in our own lives. . . . There are many twists and turns.” — Woman About Town
“This thoroughly involving psychological thriller promises a startling conclusion and delivers it.” — Booklist
“White establishes a pervasive uneasy tone, ending chapters with cliffhangers and small revelations that propel this domestic suspense tale to an intense penultimate scene.” — Library Journal
Praise for THE FIANCÉE: "A tense, simmering, fast-paced mystery, Kate White’s latest captivating thriller explores the secrets that lurk just under the surface of a picture-perfect façade. I raced through this story about a close-knit family’s annual gathering at an idyllic estate that quickly turns deadly. THE FIANCÉE kept me guessing until the very end, never sure who to trust—or where the danger was hiding." — Megan Miranda
“Kate White’s newest thriller The Fiancée is a perfect poolside or beach read, as this psychological thriller has everything a great summer read needs! Told in an almost locked-room style, as we are secluded at a wealthy family’s sprawling estate, this mystery looks at what appears to be a picture-perfect family. . . . the constant threatening feeling in the air propels this psychological thriller to a truly surprising climax.” — Nerd Daily
“A twisty family drama.” — Library Journal
“A skillfully constructed page-turner. . . .Expert pacing, characters readers can love to hate, and an intelligent heroine make this a winner. White consistently entertains.” — Publishers Weekly
"Kate White’s THE FIANCÉE is exactly what we all need right now: a fast-paced, perfectly woven murder mystery, with a hearty dash of family drama. This one must not be missed!" — Aimee Molloy
Kate White’s newest thriller The Fiancée is a perfect poolside or beach read, as this psychological thriller has everything a great summer read needs! Told in an almost locked-room style, as we are secluded at a wealthy family’s sprawling estate, this mystery looks at what appears to be a picture-perfect family. . . . the constant threatening feeling in the air propels this psychological thriller to a truly surprising climax.
THE SECOND HUSBAND is suspense at its most addictive. The pages turn in a blur. You won’t put this one down.
Immersive, spellbinding thriller about a woman questioning everything—including her husband. In Kate White’s perfectly plotted novel, it’s impossible to predict what will happen next.
"Kate White’s THE FIANCÉE is exactly what we all need right now: a fast-paced, perfectly woven murder mystery, with a hearty dash of family drama. This one must not be missed!"
Praise for THE FIANCÉE: "A tense, simmering, fast-paced mystery, Kate White’s latest captivating thriller explores the secrets that lurk just under the surface of a picture-perfect façade. I raced through this story about a close-knit family’s annual gathering at an idyllic estate that quickly turns deadly. THE FIANCÉE kept me guessing until the very end, never sure who to trust—or where the danger was hiding."
"Intricately plotted and suspenseful. THE SECOND HUSBAND is a terrific book, packed with surprises and a nail-biting conclusion."
This thoroughly involving psychological thriller promises a startling conclusion and delivers it.
01/01/2022
Finally getting over her first husband Derrick's unsolved murder, thirtyish Emma Hawke marries handsome, devoted widower Tom, and all's well until the police show up questioning when she met him. It turns out that they attended the same business meeting two months before Derrick's death, and Emma starts to wonder whether Tom had something to do with Derrick's murder. With a 60,000-copy paperback and 20,000-copy hardcover first printing.
Leslie Howard convincingly portrays the sympathetic Emma Hawke, a widow who has remarried and is trying to figure out whom she can trust. The first part of the audiobook weaves back and forth from “then,” when Emma’s first husband Derrick is murdered in lower Manhattan, to “now,” 27 months later when she is happily married to her second husband, Tom. Howard successfully differentiates the many men and women who come into Emma’s life, including a brooding teenage stepdaughter. Using pacing, appropriate emotion, and tone, Howard ramps up the tension to keep listeners eager to identify the murderer. The plot is mainly driven through dialogue, which Howard delivers masterfully as she shepherds listeners through all of the twists, turns, and reveals to the surprising denouement. E.Q. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
2022-06-08
A woman's second marriage is thrown into question when the investigation of her first husband's murder is reopened.
Emma Hawke is happily married to Tom, a handsome widower and entrepreneur, when detectives show up at their Connecticut home to tell her they're reopening the unsolved murder investigation of her first husband, Derrick, who was killed a few months before she met Tom. As more details emerge about what might have happened to Derrick the night he was killed, the police, and even Emma, start to question Tom, who, she quickly discovers, had actually seen her from afar several times at various speaking engagements before they'd officially met. Between a possibly murderous new husband, a villainous former brother-in-law, an overeager lovesick assistant who attempts to lead Emma astray, an embezzlement scheme that begets yet another (unrelated) murder, and yet another attempted murder following that, either Emma is very unlucky or the plot is very much over-the-top. Because the characters are so flat as to feel like clip-art graphics, it's hard not to go for the second explanation. The dialogue is wooden and unnatural, as if it's being used to give readers information and not portray actual people talking. Emma is a tedious character, as is Tom, which makes the idea that he might be a murderer hard to buy. And for all the drama, the book moves slowly, with the tension only picking up in the final third. By the time the reader has learned what happened and why, it's a letdown because it's so hard to invest in any of the characters.
An intriguing premise with a few surprising twists, but it falls flat.
