As a book reviewer, I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher or author to facilitate this review. I received no other compensation, and all opinions are always 100% my own.
1966, a hot summer in LA. Three women have formed an unlikely friendship. Bev, Elise and Margot may only have one thing in common but it’s a doozy–their husbands are all convicted murderers, serial killers who would return home to a wife and even kids (in Bev’s case), wash up and crawl into bed with them after committing brutal crimes. With their husbands behind bars or dead, the three are used to people judging them with one thought, “How could she not have known?” But they didn’t.
Beverly was a model in her teens. Now raising two kids as a single mom, she struggles to appear in control and untouchable, while worrying over her son’s tantrums. Elise has gotten a job at a local newsroom where she struggles to prove herself in a male centric world. Margot, sophisticated and beautiful, prefers to attend glamorous parties as a way to distance herself from her husband’s sordid crimes.
But when the three realize that yet another serial killer is at work, they decide to take matters into their own hands. After all, who better knows how a killer thinks than those who have shared hearts, homes, and beds with one? Although they are overlooked and even dismissed by the police and the press alike, they can’t give up. Their friendship may seem unlikely on one level, but they are loyal and committed. This is a way, they feel, to assuage their guilt over the fact that they didn’t know. If they can keep one more young woman alive and well, they’ll feel justified.
The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives will keep you turning pages late into the night, as the three wrack their brains, put themselves in compromising positions, and finally risk all to catch their killer.
