A really excellent addition to the ranks of "Domestic Noir" here from Laura Wilson, a writer whose previous novels I have also loved - she just does characters so well, layering in little gems of motivation and influence, the kind that affects us all.

In this a husband is suspected of an affair after some rather nasty poison pen letters - unfortunately things go rather awry, what follows is a twisted yet authentic tale, a true family drama with added oomph that keeps you involved all the way to it's brilliantly placed conclusion.

Managing to avoid the most obvious outcomes and therefore giving a genuinely unpredictable read which of course is a huge plus, The Other Woman is a fast and often thought provoking read that I have no problem highly recommending.

This book will take you through a real rollercoaster of emotions which will keep you gripped throughout.
Sophie is certain her husband Leo is having an affair and starts to check up on him and his week-day life in London.
What then transpires is breathtaking and moves at a really fast pace right up until the end.
I can't say too much more about the story without spoiling it but I will say this is a fantastic read and I highly recommend it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus for sending me an advance copy to read and review.

What an odd book. Took me a while to get into this one but what a read! I'm not even really sure what to make of that ending. The mystery behind the letters I thought was rather underwhelming; I just felt that it was rushed and unimaginative. However Leo's mystery was very amusing and certainly unpredictable! What a twist in events! Definitely worth a read!

I really wanted to like The Other
Woman, but sadly it was one of those books that didn’t hook me in.

Initially I found the book quite slow going with characters I couldn’t gel with. Half way through the pace picked up and I was sure it was going to become a book I could get engrossed in but sadly, for me, it didn’t deliver. Yes there were some tense parts but the didn’t seem to last.

However this is only my opinion as others have loved this book but unfortunately it wasn’t one of my favourites.

Thank you to NetGalley, Quercus Books and the author for the chance to review.

And the prize for marmite book of the year goes to...!
Well, that's what I think anyway. I finished it a fair few days ago and I am still not sure whether I enjoyed it or not. The basic premise is a wee bit on the daft side and what follows just plain old degenerates into farce going hand in hand with some delicious black comedy. I am going out on a limb here but some of it was rather Ortonesque in nature but not quite as close to the knuckle as what dear old Joe would have written.
If I judge a book by the speed I read it and how I felt when I turned the last page then I would have to say that, yes, I did enjoy it. As a dark psychological/crime thriller though, well, tension kinda flew out the window a bit with all the shenanigans and spanners flying into the works right, left and Chelsea, and in that way, it was severely lacking. I guess it's what you want from a book that'll make your mind up.
It probably didn't help that I really disliked the main character. With a passion. I know that usually doesn't matter to me as long as I can connect on some way, but here, due to the nature of what happens, I think it did impede my enjoyment, albeit probably only a bit.
I'd love to know whether the author had it all plotted out before she started writing or whether like Sophie, her main character, she winged it throughout, scuppered at every turn from what she wanted to do and having to take extreme measures to compensate!
All joking apart, this was one heck of a weird book. But I kinda liked it. Bit bonkers, very funny at times, cringe-worthy at others and, on the whole, one big farce. If you like this kind of thing then maybe this could be a good read for you, but I'd give it a miss if you want your more traditional psychological thriller which both the cover and blurb suggest this to be, and what I expected having read The Wrong Girl, also by this author.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

The book starts with Sophie writing her yearly Christmas newsletter to send to family and friends; I don't know anyone who does this in real life but it sets the tone for what kind of family this is. For the past few years, she has been getting newsletter returns with unkind messages written on top and the latest reply tells Sophie that her husband is having an affair and will be leaving her; hence the title of the book "The Other Woman".

We follow Sophie as she tries to figure out who this other woman is and the lengths she will go to find out. Her suspicions are pushed further when her husband Leo is distant from her and tells her to stop spending money, and finding items in the house that don't belong to her, her children or the housekeeper. Once Sophie finds the woman she believes is having an affair with her husband and she confronts her and it goes violently wrong, we follow Sophie as she tries to cope with the consequences of her actions.

The confrontation happened before getting half way through the book so I wasn't quite sure which direction the book would be taking us and how the book would be ending. Sophie clearly doesn't cope very well and we don't see her confronting her husband Leo until further on towards the end. The ending didn't go how I expected it to go and it was quite sudden what happened, but I can imagine how Sophie will spin the story for her favour.

Overall, a good book, fairly slow to get to the action and the ending leaves you to make your own assumptions.

Sophie Hamilton and her husband Leo have a fairly marvellous life - house in the country, flat in town for City worker Leo, fancy cars, yacht, three lovely-ish kids, Labrador (of course), "kitchen sups" with friends. (Once I started seeing Sophie as Samantha Cameron, I couldn't quite shake it. I think it was the kitchen sups.)

Every Christmas Sophie sends one of those round-robin letters to all her friends and acquaintances, notifying them about all her family's marvellous achievements over the past year. It's a bit of a shock when someone starts returning these scrawled over first with "Smug Bitch", then with allegations that Leo is having an affair and about to leave her. Sophie's pretty sure she isn't smug (though actually, she is) but she's not so sure about the affair, and when she thinks she's found concrete evidence, something happens which causes her life to quickly unravel...

The tone of this feels different to me from Laura Wilson's other books. There's not a great deal of mystery here as the plot mainly concerns Sophie's attempts to cover up what has happened - which rapidly becomes a black comedy of errors as she makes a series of fairly terrible decisions and misjudgements and pretty much everything that can go wrong, does. She remarks herself at one point that things are becoming farcical, and they are. You have to keep reading, just to see how much worse things can possibly get (quite a lot) and find out where on earth it's all going to end up.

It's hard to relate all that much to Sophie - she *is* smug and self-absorbed, at least to begin with, and she *does* take her extremely privileged life for granted (at one point thinking to herself in bewilderment, "I'm Sophie. I'm supposed to have a nice life.") Having experienced an insecure childhood, she often seems more concerned with the potential loss of her lifestyle and social standing than anything else and is prepared to go to quite some lengths to protect it.

There are a few twists in the tale, but not a huge amount of mystery (I guessed the identity of the "other woman" seconds before it was revealed - and I'm still pondering this aspect of the novel).

Laura Wilson is an excellent writer who always delivers a great read and this is no exception, darkly comic and a very engaging read - even if I didn't really like any of the characters! Ultimately I was left unsure quite what to make of it all. But that's OK.

What looked like a predictable plot based on the title turned out to have twist after twist. Never judge a book by the cover becomes an apt idiom for this novel.

Sopie is an average, middle class mum with all the perks of a city banker husband. She has the ideal life which is the goal for all of us.

Well life is never so tidy or kind.

We follow her through all of the permutations which stem from a nasty message scrawled across a returned Christmas family newsletter which tells all how wonderful life is for Sophie and her family.

The reader is left watching in amazement as life for Sophie unravels along with all of the plot twists and turns.

I havn't been this horrified into laughter at the 'Fawlty' like situations. By the end I was still not sure how I felt about Sophie!

I received a free copy from net galley.com for my fair and honest review.

What I love about Laura Wilson is that she’s never afraid to mix it up a little within her preferred genre. I’ve been a big fan for many years since I first read Hello Bunny Alice a few years ago now. She then wrote some historical crime one of which I loved was A Capital Crime which was based on the real life case of serial killer John Christie. A couple of years ago I noticed she had gone back to writing modern day psychological thrillers with The Wrong Girl, a tale of dysfunctional families and our national obsession with celebrities which was set in Norfolk. I really enjoyed that one so was thrilled to see she had a new book coming out. From the book blurb, I was expecting the usual formula but Laura Wilson has mixed it up in a high speed blender this time and given her readers an unputdownable psychological thriller crossed with a black comedy that became unputdownable as I watched the drama unfold with a warped fascination.

When I first started reading I have to admit I was hoping someone would bump Sophie off! She really was so full of herself and her perfect family life in rural Norfolk. When she gets her yearly “round robin” family newsletter anonymously returned to her with a message scrawled across it calling her a smug bitch, I was amazed she only had the one!!! Her boastful sharing of holidays, children’s achievements and her gorgeous homes had obviously upset one of its recipients who now claims to be having an affair with Sophies husband Leo. So does Sophie confront her husband? No of course she doesn’t! She tries to solve the mystery of the letter herself with unfortunately catastrophic results.

After the first few chapters though, I felt as though I was watching one of those theatrical farces (Arsenic and Old Lace sprang to mind at times!!) as every step that Sophie took seem to lead to even more drama! Her family, friends and even her neighbours seemed determined to prevent her from carrying out her ever increasing checklist of “errands” that she had planned. And as the pages flew towards their shocking denouement, there were plenty more secrets to uncover along the way.

I devoured this book with a ruthless enthusiasm, relishing the uncomfortable feeling it left me with. I can honestly say that this is one of the most opsychological thrillers I have read this year and, whilst it won’t be to everyone’s taste, I loved it from start to finish. A domestic noir stuffed full of unlikable characters and all wrapped up in a deliciously dark humour-just wonderful!

The Other Woman by Laura Wilson is not what i first thought it was.A thriller in parts and quite funny in others,that said the book is an excellent mix of the two.Sophie is a mother of 3 who it seems has the perfect life,but she suspects husband Leo is not the perfect husband after all when she receives a card back telling her that Leo is being unfaithful.What follows is a story of black humour and farce mixed with the odd moment of suspense thrown in.Laura Wilson has got the balance just right in an excellent book that had me guessing what the outcome would be for her and Leo untill the last page.If you're expecting a straight forward thriller this book is not for you but it is an excellent light hearted thriller/black comedy kind of book.An excellent 4 star read from Laura Wilson.oman by L

I found myself skipping pages which is unlike me. The set up is really good a perfect domestic idyll comfortable lives with secrets and a kind of madness of insecurity and material greed. I kind of lost my focus in the middle but pleased to have persevered. I wasn't gripped but I was bouncing along the story with its various bumps and twists. I like this genre and enjoyed the book.

What an amazing and thrilling read!
Sophie has it all, or so it seems. Living in a huge Manor House, children at private school, rich husband in banking etc, etc. Every year she sends out her Round Robin letter detailing her and her families latest achievements. I personally hate those letters and it made me smile to read this one and how she sugar coats every small detail to make her lifestyle utterly perfect.
However, things begin to slip when for a second year running a letter is returned with a vindictive and nasty comment scrawled on it.
Sophie begins to loose it as she begins to believe the messages and events take a sinister turn for the worst.
This is a page turning and unusual thriller which kept me reading well into the evening. Although Sophie commits many wrong deeds I actually began to feel for her. It was as though everything and everyone was out to get her and if anything could go wrong it would!
Although I had gut feelings throughout reading as to the perpetrator of the messages I was completely wrong and so found the ending quite shocking. A highly enjoyable and suspenseful thriller.

The Other Woman by Laura Wilson was an interesting read. I found that I was engaged in the plot at the beginning.. The story read like a comedy of errors and I had a few laughs out loud moments. I had been expecting a thriller but found an amusing book instead.
I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Funny, dark and gripping. Plenty of twists and turns with great characters. A real page turner!

*Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.* Laura Wilson's 'The Other Woman' was not what I expected. I expected a typical thriller/domestic noire in the tradition of 'Gone Girl' and 'The Girl on the Train.' What I got was quite different, but not in a bad way. The novel centres around mother of three, Sophie Hamilton. Sophie seems to have the perfect life - husband, house and children. However, Sophie begins to expect that her City-commuting husband, Leo is having an affair. What happens next is a series of unexpected events that I won't touch on, for fear of spoiling other readers' experiences. Whilst at times the novel is quite dark and certainly has the twists and turns of a thriller, there are also a number of comic moments. In fact, in some ways the book reads more as a black comedy than the gritty thriller I was expecting.
Due to the publisher's request, this review will not be posted on Goodreads until two weeks prior to publication.

Excellent book. Great main characters and a real page turner. I loved the plot and would recommend this book.

The Other Woman is an odd book.

It started slow, for me, and i thought it was going to be a tale of a privileged house wife whining and moaning about her husbands potential affair. It quickly took a dramatic turn and hooked me in, so I was really excited to keep reading.

But it soon became disjointed again. It was funny in parts, where I'm not sure it was supposed to be, and downright disgusting in others, though perhaps that's testament to good descriptions. I certainly could picture it all.

Didn't like or connect with any of the characters and so, while I enjoyed parts, I didn't love and doubt I'll remember, this story.