Sarah Fairbairn reviews a Walthamstow-based author’s latest thriller
By Waltham Forest Echo

To many people, waking up early in an unheated, off-the-grid cottage two hours’ hike from the nearest road would already be a pretty challenging start to the day, even without plans to jump in an ice-cold loch before breakfast. But for the cast of Jess Ryder’s non-traditional whodunnit, hypothermia in the Highlands is only the tip of the iceberg.

Our heroine, Sophie, has been having a bad time in general, having recently discovered her husband’s affair, and is now desperately trying to patch things up for the sake of their two young sons. For reasons that I, frankly, find baffling, she seeks comfort in the frigid embrace of a local wild swimming spot and forms a group of mismatched female friends to snuggle under dryrobes with. In true 2022 style, all that’s left is for our cohort of cold-water addicts to take off to a secluded house, where they will be staying in isolation for a week of digital detox.

The catch comes here. One of these friends, the inner circle of frostbite fans, the women who share Sophie’s sacred ritual, is a traitor. Not only is Sophie about to spend a week in the company of her husband’s lover but there’s also a cache of deeper, darker secrets waiting to be revealed. The book reads like a classic locked-room thriller; we know one of the women around the dinner table is the secret wrongdoer – but who is it, and will our heroine discover her identity in time to save herself from a grisly fate?

This story is published by Waltham Forest Echo, Waltham Forest's free monthly newspaper and free news website. We are a not-for-profit publication, published by a small social enterprise. We have no rich backers and rely on the support of our readers. Donate or become a supporter.

My Husband’s Lover is a timely take on the competing pressures of modern life, in which Walthamstow-based novelist Jess Ryder confidently combines a thoughtful depiction of the importance of female friendship with a well-paced and intriguing mystery storyline. Only a few moments of real peril take place over the course of the book but these are mixed effectively with explorations of Sophie’s escalating paranoia and obsession as she desperately tries to discover her tormenter’s identity. Cleverly structured with a switching viewpoint, the novel gives us moments of insight into the secret swimmer’s motivations and plans, hinting at the dark history that lies just underneath the surface of Sophie’s world. The usual conventions of the mystery thriller are all present – a love affair, a sinister secret, a remote location with no way to call in help from the outside world – and fans of the genre will enjoy Ryder’s signature slick writing and watertight plotting.

My Husband’s Lover was published by Bookouture and is available from Amazon

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