Home Truths

I got Home Truths from Kindle First Reads.  (If you’re a reader at all, you should check this out. It’s basically a free book from their selection every month, and although this one was disappointing, I’ver gotten some other great ones, like Monsoon Mansion, from the program.)  Here’s the description that made me choose it:

American nanny Eleanor was never meant to meet Alex. But when she walks into his London police station to report a stalker, everything changes for them both. He’s convinced he can protect her from anything and anyone. She hopes her darkest days are behind her.

As they settle into their life together, two hundred miles away another young couple faces an uncertain future. Christie knows Paul is a decent man, but she can’t shake a clairvoyant’s warning: ‘Never trust your husband . . .’ When a work trip tests their bond, will she overcome her fears for the sake of her family?

Ten years later, both couples are still together, for better or worse. But as doubts and resentments begin bubbling steadily to the surface, all four of them start to question the choices they’ve made.

At least the secrets they all brought into their marriages are still well hidden.

For now.

Sounds like a domestic thriller, doesn’t it? Instead, this disappointing novel manages to cover decades in which almost nothing happens. The story jumped forward years at a time, usually from someone making a sandwich or deciding where to go on holiday to the same person doing similar things several years later. Day after day, these two couples live their boring, unsatisfying marriages, their kids grow up and get older. It’s not really a thrilling thriller, but I kept going because I was convinced it was going somewhere.

Whenever something interesting or dramatic might possibly happen, the narrative slows from the usual meander to an absolute crawl, and then tries to build suspense by leaving out the sort of details that provide character development. There are pages and pages devoted to finding a Mysterious Suitcase In The Attic, with heavy hints about the Very Upsetting contents, vague references for ages, ugh. It felt more like vaguebook updates than a drama.

Everything in the blurb was a letdown. Sure, a fortune-teller warns Christie never to trust her husband, so she’s harsh and cold to him FOR YEARS and then one day she decides that’s stupid so she stops. There’s no character growth or suspense.  The only excitement in pretty much the whole book is that Ellie’s police officer husband has signed the Official Secrets Act and can’t talk much about his anti-terrorism job, but somehow even this drags. For chapters and chapters, Ellie asks her husband when he’s going to come home or where he is. Paul dies. The kids get older. Christie remarries. Ellie ask her husband when he’s going to come home or where he is. Time passes, as they plan holidays and prepare meals. The kids get older.

Surprise! Christie’s new husband, who we saw for about three seconds, and who was weird and shady for 2.5 of those 3 seconds, is actually Ellie’s husband with a fake name! He takes them both hostage, because for some reason they both figure out his double identity at the same time and decide to confront him separately on the same day (what???), and both separately agree to come quietly inside to talk things over and also leave their phones over there. Ugh. The women are randomly rescued, an ending without agency or satisfaction in a book without agency or satisfaction.