Cate Ray

Good Husbands is a really thought-provoking and gripping read. It begins with three women: Jess, Priyanka and Stephanie, each receiving a letter stating that their husbands raped the writer's mother 20 years earlier. The women have different reactions to the letter. Jess is immediately horrified and questions all she's ever known about her husband. Priyanka feels her husband is a good man who was there for her in a crisis so it takes her a lot to think of her husband as a rapist. Stephanie's first reaction is to bury her head in the sand and try and forget about the letter.

All the way through the book I was putting myself in the women's shoes, wondering how I would react if I got such a letter. I think you don't ever know unless you are in that situation but this is very much a book that got me thinking. The women come together to start to look into the allegation more, and they gradually learn to deal with it and make decisions about where their futures lie.

It's a powerful read, and a moving one at times. It took me a little settling into the three narratives but it felt very real and relevant, and whilst I think it has a slow burn to it I found myself really drawn into the story and thoroughly hooked on it. It felt original and smart. I was gripped reading about the women as they carry on their day to day lives, going to work, looking after their children, all the while dealing with a ticking bomb that's about to explode.

Cate Ray is an excellent writer, encouraging and challenging the reader to ask themselves 'what would I do?'. The moral dilemma that lies within Good Husbands is whether the past influences the present and whether you can live with a partner's mistake that he made before he met you. Is he, in fact, a Good Husband? Compelling stuff!… (mais)

Three women, an art gallery worker, a housewife, and a receptionist, all receive a letter that their husbands created a terrible act years earlier. These women don't know each other, but one of the wives reaches out to each of them to determine if the author of the letter is telling the truth, which will upset their lives and everything they thought they knew. As they investigate, they find that the writer was an artist, and both she and her mother are dead.
The women bond together trying to learn the truth. There is a tragedy and also a surprise at the end.
This was an interesting book, and I can see how learning about this act would destroy your life. But what was more surprising was the real plot revealed at the end.… (mais)

What would you do if you received a letter from a stranger saying that your husband was one of three men who sexually asssaulted her mother one night years ago and she is the result of that attack? And so begins Cate Ray's taut psychological drama Good Husbands.

The letter is delivered to three women who each have no idea who the other women are who also received the letter. Priyanka and her husband Charles have a young son whom Charles dotes on, and a happy marriage. Jess is married to Max, an energetic businessman who still excites her even after sixteen years of marriage and two children. Stephanie is married to Dan, a man quick to temper and put down Stephanie. He is a stepfather to Stephanie's two older daughters, and they have a teenage daughter together.

The women are obviously rocked by the letter and each deal with it in a different manner. Jess approaches Priyanka and Stephanie to find out what they know. Priyanka comes around before Stephanie, but eventually they decide they must find out the truth behind the letter.

Could their husbands have done such a terrible thing? Is it possible they don't know their husbands as well as they think they do? The men each have a different view of what happened that night, so it becomes a case of he said/she said.

The women work together to discover the truth, no matter where it leads. About three quarters of the way through the novel, Ray throws a twist in, and something happens that literally had me gasping in shock. I did not see that coming.

Cate Ray does a fantastic job putting yourself in these women's shoes. What would you do if you if you discovered something awful about the past actions of someone you loved? Could you ignore it or would you need to know the truth? Good Husbands will have you pondering that long after you finish this thought-provoking book.

Thanks to Harlequin Books for putting me on their Summer 2022 Mystery & Thriller Blog Tour.… (mais)