This was my first Sharon Bolton read. It started strong and promising but sadly just wasn’t for me. I loved Garry’s story and him as a character. However I felt parts of the book were dragged out and I wasn’t keen on where the story started to go. The formatting of my copy wasn’t good and I struggled to keep on track at times.

Hooked from the first chapter! A psychological thriller from an author who continuously provides superb stories with twists and turns. The characters are developed well and you feel as if you are there with them - experiencing what they experience. I thought I had the ending figured out but I was wrong! A fabulous read.

Sharon Bolton’s books never fail to deliver, in my opinion. This one has a very interesting premise at the start and from there the story gathers pace like a rolling stone.

I enjoyed meeting the characters, particularly Lexy and Garry, who had fabulous chemistry, whilst being quite endearing. I felt like I was with them, trying to solve the mystery alongside them. All the characters are portrayed effectively, with their personalities matching their role in the mystery, some changing before the readers eyes as they (& the reader) develop understanding.

The plot twists and turns as the reader follows the underlying connections. The story is told across several timelines and from a variety of narrators, so the reader builds a complete picture as the pieces fall into place.

A fabulous, fast-paced, tense mystery.

To be honest, I took one look at the title and the cover and assumed I’d be getting an ordinary run-of-the-mill psychological thriller. And that was without even having read the book description. But as this is Sharon Bolton, one of my go-to authors, I put my misgivings aside and dug in.

Funnily enough, while the beginning of ‘The Fake Wife‘ does actually feel like a run-of-the-mill psychological thriller in the “been there, done that” kind of way, it didn’t bother me one bit. I was flying through the pages, completely caught up in this intricately plotted web of intrigue and deceit. This strange woman at Olive’s table had me coming up with all sorts of crazy theories from the get-go.

This is one of those books where it’s near impossible to say anything without it turning into a spoiler, though. And as I really don’t want to give anything away, I’m going to keep this short and extremely vague. It will surely not come as a surprise to you to hear that this mysterious tale is filled to the brim with lies and secrets. These are slowly revealed throughout the story. Some might shock you, others might require a shower.

There’s a whole cast of unlikeable characters, with two incredible exceptions. These come in the shape of Garry and Lexy; two characters to get behind, to root for, who sometimes deliver a witty moment and often made me smile. I wouldn’t mind at all if Sharon Bolton would find a way to have them appear in future books.

Most of ‘The Fake Wife‘ hurt my head in the most delightful way. Quite obviously there were connections between the various threads, but I couldn’t see them for the longest time. For some characters, it felt like time was running out, which added to the tension that slowly built up along the way. There were those whom I felt were hiding something, and I couldn’t wait to see them get their comeuppance.

‘The Fake Wife‘ had me utterly hooked from the very beginning. It is just that addictive, a true page-turner. I did have a few issues with the ending, to be fair. Yes, I’m aware that this is fiction but for some reason I do still expect a tad of reality and believability. I found that to be lacking somewhat in the final chapters. Apart from that though, I thoroughly enjoyed this psychological thriller and it just goes to show that sometimes you should really not judge a book by its cover, or its title. I’m glad I decided to take a gamble on this one, and I really should have had more faith in Sharon Bolton. She’s never disappointed me before and she hasn’t now. I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Due to a corrupted digital copy it took me a while to overcome the issue and complete the book.

Having said this, I´m so glad I did because this is an outstanding story. Lexy and Garry are brilliant characters, along with Olive. A fairly slow start, but the pace increases as each chapter goes by. Red herrings by the bucket full, twists, turns and dead ends, throw in a snow storm and you have the perfect book!

Outstanding! Highly recommend.

My thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy in return for an honest review.

Thank you #netgalley and #orionpublishing for my ADC!

I think it’s no secret that Sharon Bolton is one of my favourite authors! I’m slowly going through all her books and haven’t come upon one that has disappointed me yet.

One of the things that distinguishes this authors from others is the characterisation. Her characters come to life on the page and are far from perfect but they have a certain quality that is hard to forget and I find myself thinking of them long after the book has ended.

This was a solid thriller with a great plot, that soon had me flipping eagerly through the pages. The first chapter is one of the best I’ve come across in a thriller and had me immediately hooked.

As in many of Bolton’s books you are slowly pulled into a story full of secrets and misconceptions. You think you have it figured out but all is not what it seems.

As we follow the story of the disappearance of Olive, the wife of a prominent MP, Lexy the detective on the case and Garry, her driver try to investigate what turns out to be a very complex affair, while struggling against a snowstorm.

If you love thrillers set during a snowstorm, revenge tropes, intricate plots, old secrets and great characters you won’t easily forget, look no further!

Olive Anderson has accepted that tonight she'll be dining alone, without her husband. So when a beautiful stranger appears at Olive's dinner table, telling the waiter she's her wife, Olive is immediately unsettled.

But the stranger wants to talk, and isn't this what Olive wants on this lonely winter night? To vent to a perfect stranger? She's too ashamed to tell her real friends the truth - six months into the marriage they all warned her against, her life is a living nightmare.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and after finishing it I’m most certainly going to read more. Well I actually listened to it and found both the narrators to be excellent. This is a gripping and twisty read, there’s a lot going on so found myself having to listen carefully in case I missed any vital information. It’s a fast paced read with some unsavoury characters and everyone seems to be hiding some secret or other. This is part domestic thriller and part police procedural. I loved the rapport between the two police officers Lexy and Gary and really hope they appear again in future books.

"The Fake Wife" tells the story of a politician’s missing wife and her husband, who clearly has something to hide. The dual narration follows the police as they try to establish what happened, and at the same time the missing wife, fighting for her life. I really enjoyed the fast paced plot in the book as well as the cast of characters - especially my favourite, Gary. The humour in the book played well alongside the tense moments, and the pace was quick and full of twists. Altogether, an entertaining read for the cosy afternoon.
Many thanks to the publisher and teh Netgalley for a free ecopy of the book.

As usual, A highly entertaining read by Sharon Bolton!

Olive is a troubled soul but more than you can imagine. She is married to Michael Anderson, member of Parliament for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. Then she vanishes from a hotel in Hexham, or more accurately she's kidnapped by a mysterious woman she met that evening. Nobody knows what happened to her.
Who is this woman and what is her motive?
Who is Maddy and how is she linked to Olive?
The common denominator seems to be Michael. This is the third time a woman disappears or dies that is linked to him.
Who is Michael really and what secrets is he hiding?
There are many layers to the story as well as many lies.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

I’d been waiting for a new Sharon Bolton for what felt like ages so I started The Fake Wife with ridiculously high expectations. To be perfectly honest, for a minute there, I thought I’d end up a tad disappointed. I was intrigued from the start, don’t get me wrong, but I expect more than a solid thriller from Bolton, I expect to be blown away.

While that didn’t happen right away, The Fake Wife did end up blowing my mind and most likely destroying a few brain cells in the process cos boy, was it hard to figure out how everything fit together! The Fake Wife sure kept me on my toes and at one point I must have had a dozen wild theories floating around in my head.

The formatting of the NetGalley ARC on my e-reader was quite frankly rather awful, which I think is to blame for my getting caught up in the story a bit more slowly than I usually do with this author, but despite that, I was hooked before I knew it. If I could have, I would have blown off work to keep reading and polish off that last quarter of the book, as the suspense was killing me!

A shout-out to our police duo, Garry and Lexy, whose banter I gobbled up, with the latter giving me serious Lacey Flint vibes (if you haven’t read Bolton’s Flint series, this is your cue to do so, seriously, you’re missing out!), and the former, well, I may have developed a teeny tiny bookish crush on Gazza 🥰😳😂

Part psychological thriller, part police procedural, The Fake Wife is a meticulously and very cleverly plotted, multi-layered story that keeps its cards close to its chest and is slow to reveal its characters’ many MANY secrets. With its gradual build-up throughout and breakneck speed at the end, it had my head spinning and my heart racing. I had a fantastic time with The Fake Wife and I would definitely recommend it.

The Fake Wife is out now in hardcover, digital formats and audio.

Massive thanks to Orion and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

On a cold wet week in November, there’s nothing better to curl up with than the latest Sharon Bolton book. The Fake Wife is a terrific psychological thriller, and one that keeps you turning those pages as Sharon Bolton drip feeds you clues and makes your head spin with explanations for the way her characters are behaving.

Sharon Bolton writes great characters. The pairing of DS Lexy Thomas and traffic cop PC Garry Mizon (who has twice failed his detective exams) is genius and the book follows them as they work through the steps of Olive Anderson, wife of Labour MP Michael Anderson, who has disappeared.

She sets a beguiling scene in a posh hotel in Hexham where Olive, a nurse, is dining alone. At least that was her plan, but the evening is hijacked in the most mysterious way and for Olive it turns into an evening she will never be able to forget.

Sharon Bolton plunges her readers straight into the heart of her story and from then on leads them into a fantastic dance as she unveils layers upon layers of plot and keeps them guessing all the way.

Secrets upon secrets are layered on her characters – and she does draw her characters so well that you can imagine them all. At the centre of Olive’s life is her husband, the patrician Labour MP and his frosty mother-in-law – mother of his first wife, Eloise, who died so tragically of cancer.

Sharon Bolton gives us circles of people which intersect with other circles until we are looking at a complex venn diagram where everyone has a connection to everyone else, and each individual circle is full of secrets, lies and harmful intent.

Our intrepid investigators have to trudge through snowdrifts and drive on precarious icy roads to track Olive down.

This is a dual timeline novel and the glimpses we are offered of the past very much inform us as to what might be going on in the present. Some of it is guessable; some of it is distinctly more difficult to penetrate.

There’s another missing person who may or may not have something to do with what’s happened to Olive and this wonderfully layered thriller interweaves domestic relationships with politics, villains and some shocking behaviour.

Verdict: This is a great read from Sharon Bolton. Great characters, superb plotting and all set against a frozen, dangerous background where two less experienced coppers follow their instincts to reveal a shocking and pretty horrifying story. It’s twisty, addictive, dark and thrilling. I really enjoyed it.

An unexpected and quite bizarre start to the book left me wondering what I was getting myself into! The answer? A twisty and complex plot that was well written, despite the pace being variable and quite slow and dragged out at points.

Michael’s two wives weren’t particularly likeable, but then being married to a politician, with his own clear agenda, why shouldn’t they have their own personal priorities too? And they sure did!

I grew to really like Garry and his unlikely blossoming relationship with Lexy added an edge of lightness to a dark story.

3 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Well this was all things convoluted and, occasionally, a bit bonkers, but all in a good way, I hasten to add.
We start with Olive Anderson. She has bagsied a table in a hotel restaurant and, on coming back to it, finds a strange woman sitting there. There is nowhere else to sit so, after moaning about table stealing, she agrees to sharing. She gets talking to the woman and agrees to play a game. To pretend they are wife and wife. I know, but stay with me. After dining they retreat to Olive's room where... well... shenanigans... and so begins as already mentioned, a bit of a complicated, convoluted, bonkers story that had me gripped in its jaws all the way through as I desperately tried to figure out what in the heck was happening. Oh and did I forget to mention that Olive is actually the wife of an MP, Michael who reports her as missing when she fails to come home. Sent to investigate this is DS Lexi Thomas who is paired up, sort of unofficially, by a traffic cop, one PC Garry Mizon (who pretty much steals the book in my opinion).
I loved this book. Yes I keep saying that it's bonkers but I absolutely love bonkers. But at the same time it also retains credibility all the way through. No eye-rolling necessary here!
So many secrets and lies that I gt a bit dizzy. Also a plethora of absolutely fabulous dysfunctional behaviour. And a side story of a nasty gangster type family too. It really had it all in spades.
And it was all so deliciously well plotted. Which helped with it being totally compelling and un-put-downable. But although pretty impossible to guess all of what was going on, it never go too busy, never got confusing. Staying just the right side of everything.
And the ending, when we eventually got there... sublime.
All in all, a cracking book that I thoroughly enjoyed. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to read and review this book for publication day but I will get to read it asap and share my review to all relevant book sites and my social media sites

I have just finished reading The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton. I have read all her other books and look forward to each new book. She did not disappoint. It was a brilliant roller coaster read, with twists and turns as her other books have been. The ending made me stop and ponder,which good books should do.
I would recommend this book and can't wait for the next one. Well done.

Olive Anderson, wife of MP Michael Anderson, is sat in a Hexham hotel restaurant when she is joined by a striking stranger who then proceeds to pretend she's Olive's wife, what starts off as a game turns into something far more dangerous when Michael later reports his wife as missing, what is the connection with this stranger and what secrets are about to be unearthed?

The Fake Wife is the latest thriller by Bolton, told from multiple viewpoints and across various timelines throughout the book. It's a fast paced thriller/police procedural that is action packed from the off with some very unsavoury characters who seem to be giving DS Lexy Thomas and traffic cop Garry Mizon the runaround, this unlikely teamed duo are unstoppable though and will do everything they can to find out what's happened to Olive and the mystery woman but, with the wintry weather up against them, it seems impossible. This is a story full of twists and turns, with everyone having a secret that they want to keep hidden and I was hooked from page one. Another intriguing read from this author!

I'd like to thank Orion Publishing and Netgalley for the auto approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

A great crime thriller with so many twists and turns my head was reeling.

It starts with Olive, the new (second) wife of a Labour MP, who is having a quiet dinner in a hotel when she is joined by a glamorous woman who is a stranger to her. The two women eat and drink together; the new woman goes so far as to tell the waiter that they are a married couple, so when they go back to Olive's room,. no one is surprised.
After a passionate night together, the mysterious woman changes her tone, challenging Olive to reveal some hidden truths that the other woman is sure she has buried. She believes Olive's MP husband may be involved as well. She forces Olive to join her on a journey to seek the truth.

At the same time, local traffic cop Garry is trying not to embarrass himself as part of a house raid on local organised crime family the Trickeys. Garry comes from a long line of police officers and desperately wants to fit in, but he keeps messing things up and failing his exams for any kind of promotion. He is paired with his new boss Lexy, who sees more in Garry than most people do.

Garry and Lexy become involved in the hunt for Olive, tracking down clues and hints, discarding others. They are a great pairing and I really enjoyed their scenes together.

The whole book kept me gripped, the complexities of the stories and the multitude of interactions between the characters was just what I was hoping for when I picked it up.

A solid 4/5

This was very slow to start, then picked up with some twists and turns. I worked it out quite early and the rest of it was just OK for me.

Sharon is an auto read author for me all her books i have read have been great.
This is an excellent thriller that I quickly got into.
A satisfying thriller of woman scorned and what happens.
Good Book.

Having read most of Sharon Bolton‘s earlier books (and loved them!), I was delighted to receive a copy of The Fake Wife for review. There’s not many clues given away about the plot in that synopsis and it really is best just to dive in without much further information. The story does exactly that, with the action starting straight away on page one.

The book has multiple viewpoints and it was intriguing to see how these would eventually come together. Both narratives are compelling, with well drawn characters and a metaphorical ticking clock hanging over all of them. Olive is a complex character and I’m still not quite sure how I feel about her. I have to say I loved Garry and really enjoyed his story arc.

The book is partly a race against time, and this was urgently portrayed, with short snappy chapters jumping between the different storylines, building the tension, raising the stakes and delivering shocking twists. It is a very compulsive read and I really struggled to put it down. Huge thanks to the publisher for my copy of The Fake Wife.