Just the Nicest Couple
PublisherHQ
Date Published19 January 2023
 
 
ISBN-101848458436
ISBN-13978-1848458437
Formatpaperback
Pages368
Price£ 9.99

Just the Nicest Couple

by Mary Kubica

A happily married surgeon leaves the house one day and does not return. His wife admits to having a furious row with him before he left, just one of the downs in a long-term marriage of standard ups and downs. But after several days, he has not returned home.

Review

Just the Nicest Couple has a calm beginning. The two central couplesare introduced through first person reportage. Christian, the husband of Lily, teaches at the same school as Nina, and Nina herself, whose husband Jake walks out of the family home and never comes back, are our guides in the unfolding story.   

At first it is not obvious to Nina that Jake is not coming home. She gives him some time to recover from the spat they had and keeps herself busy. However, as the days pass, her worry becomes acute, and she begins to suspect he is not returning. That he might be dead does not cross her mind.

Christian, meanwhile, has listened in increasing agitation to a story that his wife, Lily, tells him. From that moment, assumptions are made, corrections are attempted, and lives are thrown into progressive chaos.

Slowly the tempo increases and the tension ratchets up. If Jake is dead, it should be easy to spot the murderer in a small cast of characters, but Mary Kubica manages to confuse and baffle, while making this a book not to be read before turning out the lights. It s a spooky one. Doors bang, footprints are found, the dark hides people moving silently where nobody should be     

Christian does his best to protect his wife, but only drops himself into trouble; Nina is apparently innocent but might be hiding a dark emotional tangle. Someone is sneaking around in Jake's house, whilst his body remains unfound  and is he, or someone else, playing some hideous game? Lily might not be telling her story truthfully and might be guilty of something much worse. Questions arise as to whether only Nina wants to know what has happened to her husband, and why.

There is not much interference from the police, but the book is much more about the central characters and their lives, Lily s latest attempt at having a baby, the increasing dependence on Nina by her ailing mother, and a look at the heart of two different marriages. This is a very satisfying story told with confidence.

Reviewed 21 January 2024 by Kati Barr-Taylor

Kati Barr-Taylor lives in her ‘cosy pigsty’ in the Dordogne. She satisfies her literary cravings by translating, writing, editing and reading.