Like many popular mysteries, Mary Kubica’s THE OTHER MRS. has multiple narrators, but in this novel of psychological suspense, readers are led down the wrong dark path. Or rather, we are led down a path that goes in the right direction, but we completely miss the shady crooked path that goes to the heart of the mystery.

Sadie and Will Foust move to an island off the coast of Maine with their two sons when Will's sister dies and leaves her house and her teenage daughter in their care. They are ready for a new start after years of living in Chicago. Slowly, Kubica reveals that life in the Windy City was not as wonderful as Sadie and Will might have wished for. In fact, one of their sons got in trouble at school, Sadie's job was threatened, and Will made some serious mistakes in his personal life. So moving to Maine was the right thing to do --- at least that's what Will promised Sadie.

"We come to suspect what is happening on one level, and we think we know how to connect the various narrators, but Kubica is diabolical in her ability to mislead and misdirect."

Sadie, a former ER physician, finds a job at the island's clinic. They are desperate for a second doctor as their remoteness --- only a ferry to the mainland --- means that the residents rely on the clinic for much of their healthcare. But Sadie isn't settling in there because two of her fellow employees don't seem to like her.

In fact, too often Sadie appears to be an unlikable person. She is often short with her younger son, Tate, when he wants to play with her. She doesn't connect much with her teenage son, Otto, who has experienced a lot in his short life. And she seriously doesn't trust Imogen, Will's niece, who is hostile and troubled since finding the dead body of her mother, who had committed suicide after a life of extreme pain from fibromyalgia.

In many respects, Will is devoted to the children and to Sadie's well-being. Since his job as a college professor is only for a few days a week, he cooks, does laundry and is basically the stay-at-home parent. This means that he has time to get to know the neighbors and the parents of their children's friends because Sadie's job is all-encompassing. She relies on Will as she is often scatterbrained and disorganized, losing track of time and belongings.

But when neighbor Morgan Baines is murdered across the street, everyone on the small island is shaken up. And the investigating police officer seems to believe that Sadie is somehow involved, even though she had never met Morgan, who lived with her new husband and his daughter from a previous marriage.

We come to suspect what is happening on one level, and we think we know how to connect the various narrators, but Kubica is diabolical in her ability to mislead and misdirect. The ending is ingenious and satisfying in the extreme, even if there are a few lingering questions.