August 2021

I enjoyed Chandler Baker’s WHISPER NETWORK, so I was looking forward to her new novel, THE HUSBANDS. There’s a lot of talk in this country about “the second shift,” the way that women typically take on more of the management and running of the household than men do, even when they have incredibly busy jobs. This book tackles that subject head on in a very interesting way.

In it, Nora Spangler is a successful attorney whose home life is filled with taking care of a myriad of little details. Yes, she is the one shouldering most of the day-to-day family needs while also working to earn partner status at her law firm. She and her husband go house hunting in an exclusive residential community called Dynasty Ranch. There the women are just as high-powered as Nora, but they are a lot less stressed. Their husbands match their homekeeping skills and at times even surpass what the wives do. Nora takes on a case of wrongful death that happened in the community and uncovers a lot more hidden in this enclave.

As she did with the timely topic of sexual harassment in the workplace in WHISPER NETWORK, Chandler addresses the issue of where working women are today, and “the cost” of the second shift, in THE HUSBANDS.