Darby Kane, the bestselling author of PRETTY LITTLE WIFE, returns with THE REPLACEMENT WIFE, a domestic thriller that asks how one too many tragic coincidences can turn into a series of murders.

Ever since Elisa met her husband, Harris, she has been touched by his close relationship with his younger brother, Josh. After they lost their parents in a tragic drunk driving accident, 23-year-old Harris stepped in to parent and support his then-teenage brother, and their bond is equal parts sibling and parent-child. Although Josh was a bit troubled in the years after his parents’ deaths, he has become a happy, accomplished adult, and a man who can do no wrong in the eyes of his doting brother. Since dating and marrying Harris, Elisa also has come to think of Josh as a brother, but lately she can’t help but wonder if her good-looking, charming, successful “brother” might be…a murderer.

It has been seven months since Josh’s fiancée, Abby, went missing just before their wedding. She took no personal belongings, and police have yet to track any activity on her cell phone or bank accounts. All signs point to foul play. Yet somehow, Josh seems not only willing but eager to believe that Abby --- an artsy “free spirit” --- left him intentionally, off to start a new life without the man who wanted to tie her down.

"THE REPLACEMENT WIFE has a fascinating premise, kicking off with a deliciously tense dinner scene in which Elisa struggles to watch her 'brother' eat, tell stories or play with her son, knowing that he may be a killer."

Only one person seems to find her disappearance fishy: Elisa, Abby’s friend and the person who introduced her to Josh in the first place. Elisa can accept the idea that Abby would call off the wedding and even take a few days to cool off, but she can’t believe that Abby would disappear for this long without contacting her. But that’s not all: Josh's first wife, Candace, died in a sudden, tragic accident, and Elisa can’t help but wonder how many dead or missing wives is too many.

When Josh introduces his new girlfriend, Rachel, to Harris and Elisa and admits that he’s been dating her a bit longer than seems appropriate, Elisa’s fears kick into high gear as she wonders if Rachel will be his next victim. Not only is he dating far too soon after his fiancée’s disappearance, his eagerness to settle down with Rachel seems over the top. Is Josh really head over heels in love --- again --- or is he desperate for a replacement wife (read: victim)? Still reeling from her own grief over Abby’s disappearance as well as her own mental health issues, Elisa becomes determined to catch Josh in one of his lies and protect Rachel from the same fate as Candace and Abby. When Elisa finds hidden messages between Abby and a “concerned” stranger, she learns that she is not the only person who is on to Josh…but she may be the only one who can stop him.

With the tension ramping up, Elisa begins a single-woman crusade not only to find out what really happened to Abby, but to prevent it from happening to Rachel. Unfortunately for Elisa, she’s a classic unreliable narrator. After witnessing a shooting at the hospital where she worked (and being grazed by a bullet herself), she has tightened the boundaries of her life to only her immediate neighborhood. She is anxious and easily startled, and her brain occasionally turns to mush when she takes the pills that help her get through the day. Even worse, Josh seems set on proving that she is incompetent, gaslighting her and laughing away her suspicions as the wandering of a paranoid mind. With no one --- not even her husband, who has blinders on when it comes to Josh --- in her corner, and more and more mysterious details of Josh’s romantic life coming to light, Elisa must wade through her own fears and his attempts to deflect her accusations in order to prove that he is not the unlucky, lovable guy that everyone believes him to be.

THE REPLACEMENT WIFE has a fascinating premise, kicking off with a deliciously tense dinner scene in which Elisa struggles to watch her “brother” eat, tell stories or play with her son, knowing that he may be a killer. Unfortunately, the pace never really picks up from there. While unreliable narrators are popular in suspense fiction for all the obvious reasons, Josh’s gaslighting of Elisa often feels over the top and plain mean rather than compelling. Paired with Harris’ willful denial that something is clearly wrong with his brother’s love life, Josh’s manipulations seem cartoonishly shallow, often undermining rather than supporting Elisa’s narrative.

Newcomers to domestic thrillers may find THE REPLACEMENT WIFE to be a good entry point, but fans of the genre would be better off turning to PRETTY LITTLE WIFE. Darby Kane has proven that she has the skills to really wow her readers, and I’m hopeful that her next effort will do just that.