I don't like to try to figure out books as I'm reading them. I like to read just to be entertained. This one was pretty easy to figure out early on. Oh wait, no, it wasn't. Finally, I got it. No, I didn't! This one will keep you guessing. Mike's wife and children are missing. Well, not exactly missing... I don't want to tell too much but I think this book will keep you engaged and wanting to read more!

The book was fantastic!! I am always so eager to read a book by D.J. Palmer because I know it’s going to be good.

If I wasn’t getting an ARC copy, I would definitely be purchasing this book the day it was released. The thing I really loved about My Wife is Missing is the constant back and forth of who the bad person was. I was honestly changing my mind every other chapter because the author gets you so convinced that first the wife is crazy, then the husbands crazy. It’s a constant back and forth, and I loved it!

The narrator for this audio did a great job as well. It only took me 2 days to listen because I was so enthralled in the story I had to know the ending,

I highly recommend My Wife is Missing. And any other D.J. Palmer book as well!

Michael Hart comes back to his hotel room with pizza for his family only to discover they are not there. His wife, Natalie, and their kids, Abbie and Bryce, have disappeared along with their luggage. Quickly, it’s revealed she took the kids and left voluntarily. Michael is distraught and sets about tracking them down with the help of a detective. Natalie has been suffering from insomnia and has not been herself. Is this why she ran? Or is she trying to hide from her husband?

This was a fun, twisty thriller. It’s told in alternating POVs of Michael and Natalie as well as flashing back to before the disappearance. There were lots of secrets that came to light and I wasn’t sure if we had a reliable narrator or not until the end. Some of the twists I saw coming but some I didn’t. It was a little repetitive and dragged a little in the middle but I read it quickly and had to know what happened. The characters were not very likable and I don’t feel the way Natalie did things was reasonable or smart. I was never sure who to trust and who was at fault in the marriage. If you like domestic thrillers I think you would enjoy this.

3.5 stars

A family that goes on vacation in New York, but soon enough the husband can't find his wife or the kids. They disappeared. Did they leave by choice? Did someone make them leave? Have they been kidnapped ?

As the story unfolds we find out more about this family and their dynamic prior to the NY trip. Things are never as they seem to be.

D.J. Palmer does a good job misdirecting the reader. Even though the book is a bit slow in the middle, it has a good ending.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. for allowing me to read this book!

Nope. tThere were so many sentences that were so wordy and unnecessarily stuffed with big words. For example: “…Natalie’s cadre of conjured concubines, an amalgam of the real women…” just rubs me the wrong way and makes reading unenjoyable

I'll be totally honest, I was starting to get a little bored with this one. Just when I was feeling pretty meh about it, the next page stunned me just like a flipped switch. I'm always impressed with Palmer's writing and should know better than to give up hope!

Review of My Wife is Missing by D.J. Palmer:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A weekend getaway to New York City with the family quickly turns into a something of a nightmare for Michael Hart when he returns to the hotel room with pizza, only to find his wife and two young children missing. His initial thought is that they were kidnapped so it comes as a shock to him when he finds out that Natalie left on her own accord with both children - and that it looked like it was all planned. Natalie had her reasons for running but telling anyone would only endanger her and the kids. So.. she runs. But as she’s on the run, her insomnia catches up to her and it’s hard to trust anyone, including herself. The police are curious about why Natalie ran - and Michael has his suspicions but sharing the truth about his past would implicate himself. Has the past that Michael tried so hard to hide finally catching up to him?

Yet another mind-bending book by D.J. Palmer and deserving of all five stars! This book screams Dateline plot. Family drama, hidden past, secret life, suspense. The book immediately starts off intense, drawing you in and setting the stage for a gripping series of events while the middle is somewhat of a slow burn but keeps readers engaged with every deep lie, only to get to the final blows connecting everything together. Told between dual timelines and alternating point of views, each new twist and revelation is an unexpected surprise. I could not have predicted the ending despite how much I tried. So many theories and every single one of them wrong.

Thank you @StMartinsPress + @Netgalley [#partner] for gifting me with an early readers copy in exchange for an independent and honest review. My Wife is Missing will be out on shelves next week so preorder now so you can start reading on Tuesday!

What an enjoyable book. What is thought to be a family vacation is actually an escape. Natalie does not feel safe with her husband. So, she decides to run away with her children. Her husband will not stop till he tracks her down. Funny because he teams up with a detective with the same agenda!

I can't give too much away but this book is packed full of drama and suspense!

This is for both the audio and ebook version. 4 stars! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan and St. Martin's Press for the early listen/read. Loved the narrator she did a great job with each character. Easy to distinguish between the characters. What a great suspenseful story. D.J. Palmer is one of my favorite authors when it comes to suspenseful/psychological thriller stories. The author does a great job keeping you hooked until the very end which usually ends in an explosive ending. Did not see that coming.
Highly recommend

Wow, what an amazing read! This book was impossible to put down. It was really exciting not knowing what would happen next. The twists were surprising and expertly executed.

Michael & Natalie Hart and their two young children are spending the week in New York City on a family vacation. Museums, family fun, and possibly even a little repair on a crumbling marriage.
Checked in, bags ready to unpack, and a pizza in hand, Michael comes back to an empty room and his family nowhere to be found. Convinced they have been kidnapped he is shocked to see they left willingly.
Secrets will be unearthed, and between a sleep deprived wife and a paranoid husband who can you really believe? This book was super addictive and kept me guessing and on edge the whole time! Just when I thought I had it all figured out we took yet another turn. Although the final twist wasn't my favorite I am still glad to have read this book. DJ Palmer's writing draws you in and is action packed start to finish. Very little fluff and all suspense. Thank you to St. Martin's Press & NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Four stars.

The good: twisty turns, secret pasts, red herrings. The bad: all the repetition and dragging on. This book could easily have been 50 fewer pages and provided for a much tighter more suspenseful reading experience. I get wanting to make the reader wait and needing to fill in the space between the initial event and the reveal, but I don't need to go over the same things multiple times. I'd prefer a story that keeps things tight. Perhaps had that happened, the twists might not have felt so obvious as well? I enjoyed the book but felt like I missed out on the opportunity to have read a much better version of the same story had some judicious editing taken place.

Thank you to the publisher for my copy - all opinions are my own.

This was a good read - solid, dependable and interesting. While this one didn't blow my socks off and doesn't really throw out any mind boggling twists, it was overall just a great book to spend an afternoon with.

I enjoyed the pacing and I love a book that moves perspectives on character. I loved the element of Natalie having severe insomnia that really lent a sense of uncertainty to what was going on. I loved that Michael had shady secrets that he is hiding, but the reveal of those secrets was bit by bit which kept me interested. I loved that the plot was a husband tracking his wife as she goes on the run, but in a way that was believable from a resource and ability perspective.

Definitely a great book to meander over on beautiful spring afternoons.

I think as a parent, missing kids is one of the most horrific and unimaginable tragedies. So what if the other spouse is the reason they are missing? Does it make it better or worse?
For Michael Hart, a fun family get-away to New York becomes anything but when his wife, Natalie, disappears with their kids Bryce and Addison.

My heart immediately went out to Michael, and I can imagine going through similar reactions. It is all just a misunderstanding, right? But as we get bits of Michael and Natalie's POVs, it is clear there is something behind this incredible action. And I'll be honest, I was worried about what that reason would be.

The most insight we get into the reason is from Natalie, whose POV is both in the past prior to New York, and in the present as to attempts to evade Michael in his desperate search. I'll admit, I did question her sanity more than once, as she seems to imagine one person after another coming after her (I guess insomnia would do that to a person).

As for Michael, based on Natalie's POV and his internal monologue, beyond the introduction, I didn't trust him one bit. And like Michael, I had no idea why a detective would join him in a cross-country pursuit.

With everything that is presented, I was shocked at the direction the story would ultimately go. Definitely a huge twist that changed everything. I'm not sure how either parent could go back to normal life after everything they went through, but I liked how the author wrapped things up for all involved.

If you are interested in a well-paced thriller with an unexpected twist, check this one out.

I gave this author a second chance because his last book wasn't for me. I’m glad I did!

I was completely hooked from page one. It reminded me a lot of Gone Girl and I honestly did not see the plot coming.

Natalie and Michael decide to go on a vacation trip with their two kids.
Michael leaves to get some pizzas and when he’s back to the hotel room, his wife and kids are gone. Her bags aren't there so it looks like she ran away.

The whole story is a mouse-cat hunting and I really liked the POV switching between Michael and Natalie. I had no idea who to believe in.

I switched between audio and physical and I highly recommend the audio version. What an awesome narrator!

This is a great thriller! A wife goes missing with the kids. The husband tries to track down the truth. However, both have secrets and have lied. Then there is the horrible fact of a past tragedy. Who was responsible for that?
The ending is a stunner and will keep readers e tranced until the end.
I shoved everything aside to keep reading this book, I got that involved in it.
Great read!

This was a good mystery. It was like a cat and mouse chase but also had some twists thrown in! I liked it!

Another great story by D.J. Palmer. When his wife and kids go missing, the past starts to unwind. The book was well paced, and the revelations came at a good pace. The story was told from various points of view and times. This worked well for the book. There were a good number of twists and turns on the way to the conclusion. I received a copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Wow! Just wow! DJ Palmer apparently can do no wrong when it comes to writing stories full of suspense, twist you won't see coming, thrills and chills that will make you gasp and endings that will take you a while to process! This was one was unbelievable and will probably be in the top of 2022's best of the bests. The character development is exquisite, the story line masterful, that ending mind blowing! Don't miss out on this one friends!

3.5 round up to 4.

In D.J. Palmers My Wife is Missing a seeming normal family has secrets that are about to tear their world apart.Micheal is keeping secrets from his wife and slowly with her insomnia and all the lies are getting to her. Natalie knows she must run, with their two kids and tell no one.
This was a fun cat and mouse read! I enjoyed Natalie's character and how she planned out how she was going to get away and how things quickly changed and become complicated! I did find myself getting annoyed with her a certain points and I felt like the story was dragging a little in the middle.Micheal was very unlikeable for me, which had me rooting hard for Natalie as the chase continued. Then it picked right back up towards the end where everything starts to come together! The twist was really good and I didn't see it coming at all!

Thank you to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for my review copy!