Editorial Content for Someone Else's Husband
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
When Kimberly McCreight burst onto the literary scene in 2013 with RECONSTRUCTING AMELIA, it was obvious that she was going to be something special in the psychological thriller genre. Along the way, her books have garnered Edgar, Anthony and Alex award nominations while continuing to gain her well-deserved readership across the globe.
McCreight’s latest, SOMEONE ELSE’S HUSBAND, is a memorable and puzzling novel that reads like an onion. Each layer of detail is subtly peeled away, daring readers to put everything together to figure out what is really going on. I doubt even astute thriller fans will be able to sort this plot out as it is quite ingenious and reads addictively.
"McCreight fuels SOMEONE ELSE’S HUSBAND with a fiery storyline that keeps readers guessing and surprises coming right up to the grand finale. Another great summer beach read has arrived!"
The book opens with a Prologue featuring a nameless narrator who is discussing the possibility of “getting away with it” and the nature of the word premeditated. It is obvious that this killer will be featured later in the story and revealed in the finale. The rest of the novel switches back and forth between characters like Gretchen Falk, a Park Avenue socialite; Richard Falk, her wealthy husband; and Frankie Callahan, a young painter who may have been more than friends with Richard.
That SOMEONE ELSE’S HUSBAND has more than a passing resemblance to Scott Turow’s PRESUMED INNOCENT cannot go unsaid, but the results may be far different from the plot twist that made that novel a classic. Richard had met Frankie during a climbing expedition of Mount Kilimanjaro, in which a member of the party was killed. Whether it was because of that tragic death or just the shock of it, the bond that formed between Richard and Frankie became intense and would remain so right up until the point where Frankie was brutally murdered, her body dumped in a famous Manhattan park and an eyewitness who placed a blood-covered Richard at the scene.
Gretchen and Richard have their apartment ransacked by the police as they are brought down to the precinct. She tries to get their attorney to have Richard released, an option that is instantly taken away after he freely gives testimony to the detectives that makes him the prime suspect. There is much more going on beyond what seems like a cut-and-dried murder case. Frankie had reported to an attorney friend of Richard’s that she needed help dealing with an ex who had become a dangerous stalker. The issue is that the evidence, from eyewitness testimony to damaging text messages, makes it look bad for Richard.
Gretchen and her three grown children bond over this and find it hard to believe that Richard could have done such a thing. Reality is sobering for them, as evidenced by the judge who dislikes the wealthy and remands Richard to prison for the length of the trial. Gretchen may live life with her head in the clouds, but she puts on a good act of being blind to her husband’s flirtatious nature and possible infidelities. She now must face that with this case, even though she knows in her heart he could not have done it.
The love triangle that is revealed drives the plot and both the police investigation and murder trial forward at a blistering pace. McCreight fuels SOMEONE ELSE’S HUSBAND with a fiery storyline that keeps readers guessing and surprises coming right up to the grand finale. Another great summer beach read has arrived!
Teaser
Gretchen Falk, a Park Avenue sophisticate born into great wealth and blessed with a storybook marriage, tried to convince her devoted husband, Richard, not to join his old college friends on an expedition to the imposing peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. Frankie Callahan’s dream of artistic success is within reach, with her career-making exhibition at a celebrated New York gallery only weeks away. To mark this new beginning, she is going to climb Kilimanjaro, but she certainly didn’t count on meeting anyone like Richard Falk. By the time they descend, they have lost more than they ever could have imagined. Now, less than two weeks after their return to New York, Frankie’s East Village loft is a blood-soaked crime scene, and Richard has been charged with her murder.
Promo
Gretchen Falk, a Park Avenue sophisticate born into great wealth and blessed with a storybook marriage, tried to convince her devoted husband, Richard, not to join his old college friends on an expedition to the imposing peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. Frankie Callahan’s dream of artistic success is within reach, with her career-making exhibition at a celebrated New York gallery only weeks away. To mark this new beginning, she is going to climb Kilimanjaro, but she certainly didn’t count on meeting anyone like Richard Falk. By the time they descend, they have lost more than they ever could have imagined. Now, less than two weeks after their return to New York, Frankie’s East Village loft is a blood-soaked crime scene, and Richard has been charged with her murder.
About the Book
New York Times bestselling author Kimberly McCreight delivers a tour de force of character-driven suspense: the story of two women whose secrets and desires entrap them in a deadly love triangle.
Gretchen Falk, a Park Avenue sophisticate born into great wealth and blessed with a storybook marriage, knows she lives a charmed life, and she’s not about to risk losing any part of it. That’s why she tried to convince Richard, her devoted husband and the father to their three children, not to join his old college friends on an expedition almost 8,000 miles away to the imposing peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. Little did she know that the beautiful artist climbing alongside him might prove the far greater danger.
Frankie Callahan’s dream of artistic success is within reach, with her career-making exhibition at a celebrated New York gallery only weeks away. If all goes well, the show will leave her financially independent, free of the tainted money that ties her to a past --- and a man --- she’s desperate to escape. To mark this new beginning, she is going to climb Kilimanjaro. But when she learns she’s the sole female accompanying a group of male friends, Frankie realizes that nothing about the trip will be as she expected. She certainly hasn’t counted on meeting anyone like the very charismatic, very rich, very married Richard Falk. By the time they descend --- with one fewer in their group than when they began --- they have lost more than they ever could have imagined.
Now, less than two weeks after their return to New York, Frankie’s East Village loft is a blood-soaked crime scene, and Richard has been charged with her murder. It falls to Gretchen to figure how the life she so carefully constructed could have imploded so completely. There are only two things she knows for sure: she’s the only woman Richard has ever loved, and he would never hurt anyone.
SOMEONE ELSE'S HUSBAND is the sweeping and suspenseful story of two women on a collision course with love --- and with each other --- in which no one is right and everyone is very, very wrong.
Audiobook available, read by a full cast
