3 out 5 stars

The Perfect Marriage by Adam Mitzner is a suspense/legal novel which is a genre I totally enjoy.

The writing style was different and it took me a little while to get into a reading groove with this book. I was also very puzzled by the title. For the entire book I was waiting the marriage to be more relevant. I wondered if the word perfect was ironic and I thought there would be a big twist revealing that the marriage was not as perfect as it seemed. Once I finished the book I was still puzzled by the title as I felt the marriage played a very small part in the story.

There were a lot of characters in this book and I understand that it was part of the plot to keep the reader guessing but for me I felt no connection to any of them. James in particular I felt was undeveloped. So much so, that I didn't care about him at all or what happened to him.

Mitzner did do a good job with creating red herrings throughout the story and for a while I was kept guessing. Unfortunately I did predict the big "twist" at the end which made it less impactful and dramatic for me.
I really liked the legal parts of this novel. While I am not a lawyer - these parts felt well written and realistic to me. In fact some of favorite parts of the book were the police and court scenes

Overall, if you like suspense and legal drama this may be a book you would enjoy. For me it was good but not great.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

oooh I wanted to love this one, I did. And the inner story, the mystery and the twists was actually very well done and I enjoyed that part. The part I struggled with was the writing/story telling style. The POV jumped all the time - it didn't seem to have any telltale signs to point out it was moving person to person, it just jumped. The beginning was overwhelming as so many characters are introduced in rapid, quick succession and I struggled to remember which was a wife, an ex and who they belonged to.

But the mystery was interesting, I didn't know quite what was going on until the trial and the ultimate reveal. It was interesting but I definitely struggled.

I was lucky to receive a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and opinion. Adam Mitzner is a new author for me and I was very excited to read this based upon the description of the book. I enjoyed the book however I didn't love how the narration varies from chapter to chapter and focuses on the different characters. I did like how the story was revealed little by little and truly kept me guessing. I highly recommend this to anyone who appreciates legal thrillers.

This book .. oh this book. I couldn’t put it down .. I had to know what happened. It held my attention from start to finish. I definitely would recommend it!

I wasn't able to complete this book before it was archived, so I downloaded it on Audible! If you're a thriller lover like me, you're going to want to pick up this book. Mitzner does an excellent job staging his plot and weaving in just enough characters to keep you guessing along the way.

Set in New York City, "The Perfect Marriage" focuses on an art dealer celebrating his first year of marriage to his new wife. James' & Jessica's happy life is currently being tempered by his crazy ex-wife Haley & her son Owen, who is fighting cancer. While dealing with both of these issues, James is found murdered in his office as his stepson receives treatment at nearby Sloan Kettering.

Immediately, several suspects come to light, including James' business partner Reed, who is very dark & shady; his ex-wife Haley, who continues to stalk James & Jessica and has a restraining order against her; and Jessica's ex-husband Wayne, if only because she had an affair with James when they were still married. Flash forward through the muck & DNA comes to light & begins to play a major role in the case. The story continues to weave & keep the reader wondering how this is all going to play out, when the DNA shows that it wasn't Wayne or Haley at the scene, but Owen! Cue the drama!!

Owen thought James was cheating on his mom, when in fact James was actually working with an FBI agent to bring down his business partner, Reed. Owen killed James in a fit of rage, hoping to save his mother from a broken heart. What a ride!

Loved this book! In the beginning there ate many characters introduced so you have to keep up and with their past lives. The book starts getting a good pace after about 70% and the ending is very twisted. Recommended!

This book was very hard to get into until half way through. There were too many characters and the way the author went back and forth between characters was confusing. I did not like who the killer eventually turned out to be. All in all a very average book.

Not sure I would have titled this as such. Seems that there were no perfect ones identified in this story. There are many characters that are married, have been married, divorced, want to be remarried, vengeful and resentful partners——they’re all represented here.
   The “perfect marriage” of Jessica and James has a few cracks in its armor that you come to discover.
   One of the sources of the dent in this perfect relationship is a sick teenage child who needs costly procedures. As the family does not have the funds to make it happen, there are some shady deals that surface.
   The death of the “perfect” husband opens many doors as to who the killer might be ….so many characters have been thrown to the side of the road for this perfect marriage, so there are many motives.
   There is also the education of the reader to the medical disease/treatment of the sick teenager which is well done.
   As the reader I assumed what the course of action would happen to the killer but was very surprised by what the courts could/would do. An surprise ending for what I was convinced was the obvious outcome.
   A good read.

***SPOILERS IN SECOND PARAGRAPH***

3.5 stars (rounded up) because it held my interest. I wanted to keep reading and find out more. However, I definitely struggled at the beginning. The transitions from character to character were basically non-existent. You're reading about one character and without any notice, the next sentence introduces someone new. No separation on the page, no new chapter; very odd and mildly frustrating. I will say it's evident the author is a practicing lawyer as all the courtroom scenes were very well written. Overall I'd say it's a quick read with some interesting characters, just wasn't quite sure how to feel about the ending...
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SPOILERS AHEAD!
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I didn't know how to feel about Owen being the killer? Not necessarily that he was the killer, but that it was essentially an accident? It felt extremely anticlimactic after all the build up. I was at least hoping for another twist at the very end to make up for it; something along the lines of..."after beating cancer twice, Owen takes his own life because he can't live with the guilt" but alas, not the case. Overall I did enjoy the book, but as I find can be somewhat typical in this genre there were a lot of small details that never quite added up.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased review!

Mitzner has a very interesting writing style. As someone who does not enjoy being bombarded with characters at the very beginning of a novel, I found this book hard to get into. As it went on, I did enjoy the plot but overall this story fell somewhat flat for me. I was hoping to be more engaged and more invested in the characters, but the writing style in this book proved to challenge that.

Excellent book! I read this in 24 hours as I could not put it down. The story has so many surprises. The characters are genuine and their interactions make this book come alive. I feel it is a must read!!

@1_page_turner

⭐⭐⭐.5
#theperfectmarriage #netgalley

Quick Read:
Crime
Infidelity
Betrayal
Stalking
Divorce
Childhood Cancer
Fast read by seasoned author. Typical murder mystery, not much for twists and turns. A little slow and dragging at times but I was totally intrigued and fully engaged during the whole read. I did like how the author was detailed about each subject (art, medical, court process) without going overboard. Also, I enjoyed how detailed the characters were, it really felt like you were interacting with them and I had a nice mental picture. I would read another @adammitzner book and would recommend #theperfectmarriage to others.

Thank you #netgalley and #thomas&mercer #amazonpubishing for a great book that was hard to put down!

This was an excellent story that kept me guessing until the end. Several characters had the motive for the murder, but I never really expected the one who was revealed. Another great story by a great author. Thanks for the chance to read this early version.

This book started out so happy and full of joy. Then the unthinkable happened and joy quickly turned into tragedy. The plot was chock-full of whodunnits. I really didn’t like anyone in the book as the author did a brilliant job of exposing everyone’s flaws and because of this, it held my interest.

As someone who doesn’t usually read this sun genre, I didn’t think I’d personally enjoy a legal thriller, but this book really surprised me. I ended up really liking my time with this book.

This book did get off to a slightly slow start and none of the legal system part (arguably my favourite) happened til later on, yet I still found myself hooked on the backgrounds of the characters and what ultimately led to one of their deaths.

I’m always a fan of multiple perspectives in books and while some may say this book follows one too many a character that are all introduced very soon into reading, I would argue that each character has an integral role in the story and a unique viewpoint to offer.

One of my small nitpicks with this book is that I would’ve liked further character description; Owen was the only character I could vividly picture and I like to have a good idea of what each character looks like while reading, especially in a dual perspective narrative like this one.

As I said previously, I don’t often read legal thrillers, but I do think the author explained the legal process really well. It was informative without being too overwhelming as someone unaware of the process. The author’s writing style was probably my favourite part of this book.

Overall I’d definitely look to pick up other thrillers by this author, and would recommend this to friends and followers who are interested in the genre.

I didn't find myself particularly moved by this book at all. It was a good story, but it wasn't much more than that. There was enough going on to keep me engaged as the plot moved forward, but I kept waiting for a moment that would make me feel hooked, and it never really came. Maybe it's because I felt disconnected from the characters. They had a lot of drama but not much depth. The fact that Owen is a student at my old high school added a personal touch of nostalgia that I appreciated, but I wanted more from these characters overall. I didn't hate the novel, but I didn't love it, either.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for my copy.

Adam Mitzner is a great legal thriller writer.

This book was good, especially the last 30 percent or so, but not one of my favorites of Mitzner’s. I felt it spent a bit too much time on the setup, with a lot of details and plot points about the underground art world that weren’t too dramatic or strictly necessary to the story. Or maybe this is just not an area that interests me. Regardless, it took until about 40 percent in for anything super interesting to happen. But from that point, we were off to the races.

At the end of the book is where the special Mitzner magic comes in. An ingenious and unexpected plot twist combines with Mitzner’s usual fantastic courtroom scenes to make this a really neat story. Here too, as always in Mitzner’s books, the reader gets great courtroom scenes peppered with accurate caselaw so that you might learn something new about the law.

I liked this book but I didn't love it. I was expecting a thriller and it didn't really feel like a thriller. I wasn't able to connect with any of the characters. I previously read Mitzner's Dead Certain and enjoyed that more.

The description of this book and the title is what drew me in at first. As I started reading, I enjoyed the plot of the book and trying to find out “who did it.” There were things about the book that I did not enjoy. I found it confusing how it switched from character point of views within the same chapter. I found myself having to re read parts because I thought I was still in one characters point of view, but it had actually switched to a different character and I missed it. I enjoy books that have character point of views separated by chapters.

As for the ending of the book, it was anti climactic. Although I initially did not guess that ending, when it was revealed I was not shocked or impressed. The ending definitely fell flat for me.

I will give this author another chance and read his other books in the future.

Why do I love a sullen stepchild? It wasn't a main part of the book, but I just love that part of a story. The mystery didn't come into play until about 40% in and then it became extreme on the police procedural side. Personally, I don't really like reading police procedurals. So my own personal enjoyment aside with that aspect, the prose was great. Many red herrings and I almost missed the major clue at the end.