Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC for my Kindle.
A psychological thriller with twists and turns plus an ending I never saw coming!
Hopefully, there will be a sequel to this book so that 2 characters Alex and Bethany will have a "different life" when the truth is revealed.

I enjoyed this book and especially liked that the ending, which served its purpose to shock, more or less tied things up which is something of a novelty these days with this genre of book (usually I have to ask for other people’s take on it). However, Bethany (main character) annoyed me - there were times I just wanted to give her a gentle shake!

To give a brief summary of the story: happily married photographer, Bethany, is commissioned to do work for a billionaire (Callum) but over the course of the period she is working with him she falls in love. However, they have a massive argument about their relationship and Bethany storms off. Shortly afterwards a news flash catches Bethany’s eye and she realises Callum is dead. Cue trying to work out who did it and their motive and whether they are responsible for all the other going’s on in Bethany’s life.

All in all a good debut book and I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an advanced read copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The Guilty Wife is the debut novel from Elle Croft and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had me hooked from the first page and although I did work out the ending m, it didn’t detract from an enjoyable book.

It’s a gritty, fast paced psychological thriller and a definite page turner.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orion Publishing Group and the author for the chance to review.

This is a tense and fast paced debut psychological thriller from Elle Croft set in London. Bethany Reston is torn between two lovers. She is happily married to Jason whom she loves, and she is having a torrid affair with famous married business billionaire, Calum Bradley. Bethany runs her own photographic studio with assistant Fran that is doing rather well, so much so that Calum invites her to take photographs of himself for business purposes. This leads to a more lucrative personal reality photo deal for a coffee table book which has Bethany in Calum's life almost on a daily basis leading to their covert relationship. It all begins with Bethany's birthday gift to Calum, a memory card comprising of intimate and revealing images. She loves him, but he has no intention of leaving Claire, his wife, and their open marriage. Bethany is certainly a guilty wife, but when Calum is stabbed to death at a tube station, she is innocent of his murder, aware that she would be the prime suspect as his mistress.

Bethany, a self obsessed personality with little awareness of what is going on with those closest to her, is emotionally distraught at the loss of Calum, drowning in her grief that cannot be publicly acknowledged nor shared with anyone. A public outcry led to Calum's previous mistress having acid thrown at her, her life destroyed after a leak to papers assumed to have come from the police. This contributes to Bethany's fears and her decision to not inform the police about their affair. A drunken night out with her best friend, Alex, a divorce lawyer, leads to a odd tweet that Bethany deletes, she assumes its the result of her drinking. However, after the murder, life spirals out of control as a series of incidents involving dead flowers, hacked social media accounts, alarming notes and photographs left in her flat by the killer, contributing to Bethany's paranoia levels and fears climbing sky high. The killer knows everything, leaves the murder weapon in her flat, and warns her not to talk to the police. The only crumbs of comfort she has is the love and support of Jason and Alex. Determined not to be framed for murder, Bethany draws up a list of suspects to investigate and find the killer.

Elle Croft has written a compelling and gripping thriller that has you desperate to find out what is going on. It is a story of twists that cannot fail to keep the attention of the reader. There are a few plot weaknesses, especially when the final twist is revealed, but other than that it is an adrenaline fueled thrill ride. Bethany becoming bored with the stability, dependability and reliability of her loving husband is more often a characteristic attributed to the husband, and women are judged significantly more harshly of the same behaviour in a marriage. An entertaining and engaging read. Many thanks to Orion for an ARC.

This was such a great debut novel and kept me hooked and just wanting to know who did it! I’ve seen a few people state that they guessed who did it and I had my suspicions and they proved completely wrong and I didn’t manage to figure it out! This had me wanting to read more and more and I was struggling to put it down. This is all told from Bethany’s point of view apart from the last chapter which is told from the killer’s point of view and I think this worked so well.

This is another one where I don’t want to say too much as it is meant to be a mystery thriller. This is about Bethany Reston who is married to Jason but also having an affair with one of her clients, Callum Bradley, a millionaire businessman who is also married. Callum ends up dead after one of their meetings and Bethany starts receiving notes and other things that point to her being the murderer. She decides the only option she has is to find out who actually murdered Callum and get to them first before they destroy everything for her. I did enjoy the ending, but I feel like it could have been more plausible if it didn’t go as far back – I don’t want to say anymore because it will ruin it and contain spoilers! It wasn't a bad ending by any stretch though and I'm really happy with how it all wrapped up.

The pace was great and I found it was a really nice, easy quick read which is always a plus. The character building was done really well too - there wasn't too much reveled about a character so it spoiled the story but there was just enough revealed to send you on your own little manhunt for the murderer and keep you guessing.

Overall this is a great debut thriller and I’m really looking forward to see what else Elle Croft comes out with!

A first rated story written by an amazing author. This is a book that once begun cannot be put down. What begins as a simple murder mystery has more twist and turns giving the reader new suspects every few pages, ending with a plethora of possibilities and leading to the obvious question - who really did it and why! How easy it was to frame an innocent woman who feels guilty for loving two men at the same time. The book has been well written, characters and scenes so well described that it is easy to imagine yourself as a reader into this story. The descriptions of her home and privacy being invaded gave me the creeps as I was reading this when alone in my home and every creak seemed to be magnified. Right up the very end I still had many suspects and had reasons for them all but determining which was the real murderer only became confirmed when the writer determined at the very end. An author worth watching. Highly recommend this to readers who like murder mysteries that keep the reader on the edge throughout.

What a great debut book by Elle Croft. The Guilty Wife is cleverly constructed, brilliantly written and a tense gripping page-turner.
I couldn't see at first where this was heading and I never guessed how it would end . So many twists, so much suspicion. An excellent, unputdownable novel for fans of a good, psychological thriller.

Thank you!

Another day, another delicious debut; I do love discovering new authors to add to my every growing watch list. And here we have a doozy of a story which grabbed me from the off and kept my rapt throughout.
Bethany is having a bit of a fling with a client, Callum. Not just any old client, he's a wee bit on the famous side. She's a photographer and has been contracted to take pictures for a coffee table book to go along with his new series. This means working closely with him and the inevitable happens. Callum has been caught out before, with rather devastating consequences, so he is desperate to keep Bethany under wraps. A bit of a fling for Callum but Bethany isn't quite on the same page and despite her good relationship with husband Jason, has fallen quite deeply for him. A few days after gifting him a set of, shall we call them interesting, photos of the two of them, Callum is found dead. The police find out about the affair and fingers start pointing to Bethany as a suspect. With the last meeting between Bethany and Callum not really going as well as it should, is it possible that she is the murderer or, as she protests, is someone trying to frame her? And, if so, who and more importantly, why?
Blooming heck. This was a bit of a ride from start to finish. Incredibly well plotted and containing just the right amount of twists, turns, and red herrings to keep me on my toes throughout. Is Bethany lying? Well, she is an adulteress so she isn't squeaky clean but murder is a bit step up from breaking her marriage vows. But then she is also, by nature of the affair, a liar. How much of what she says is the truth and how much is she lying or withholding. Well, I spent the majority of the book unsure and suspicious. Of her and also several other characters; there were, as usual, quite a few credible motives flying about. I did guess the who before the reveal, but I don't know how much of that was me reading loads of these books or whether it was a bit easy. I'll never know but despite knowing, or thinking I knew the who, the why was a different matter. And the whole thing did revolve around certain expectations of behaviour of others so it wasn't quite as straight forward as some plots I've read.
It's a wee bit Apple Tree Yard in places but also distinct enough from that book to be novel in nature. The ending was definitely not what I was expecting.
All in all, a pretty good debut, I'll definitely be looking out for what the author serves up next time. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Very solid psychological thriller - impressive as a debut. One of those books that you feel compelled to finish so you can get your hands on all the secrets! I worked my way though it in 24 hours. Really like Elle's style of writing - very accessible and some engaging characters. Definitely someone I'll keep an eye out for to see what she writes next.

I am an avid reader of thrillers and always reckon I can predict what is going to happen, but this page turner was to defeat me and kept me changing my mind right till the end. As a debut this is a great read and I read it in two sittings. Bethany Reston is a happily married woman with a closely guarded secret, she is having an affair that must never be revealed or there may be dangerous consequences. Then murder strikes and the Bethany finds her life start to fall apart and just who does she trust? The plot twists and turns and sucks the reader in trying to anticipate what will happen next. I wanted to keep on reading and after the first couple of chapters I was hooked.
I felt that the author described the characters really well, the chapters were a good length, I hate it when they are too long and the suspense was excellent. I usually have negative things to say about a book but I really enjoyed this and I think it's a great debut I will definitely recommend it and look forward to more of the authors work

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the Publishers for this review copy, given in exchange for an honest review.

The story centres on Bethany Reston. She is “happily” married to Jason, but she is also having an affair with her client, famous millionaire Calum Bradley. Neither of them want to leave their husband or wife, but Bethany is starting to fall in love with Calum. Calum wants to end their relationship as it is getting too complicated and he gives his security the slip to meet Bethany to do this. When he tells her it’s over, she walks away from but when she wakes up the next morning its headline news that Calum Bradley has been found murdered, right where they had met the night before. Bethany was the last person to see him alive, but she knows that she didn’t kill him. So who did?

This was a great story that had me hooked from page one! I’ve tore through it in just over a day! It was told from Bethany’s point of view, although the last couple of chapters are told from the killer’s point of view (don’t worry, I won’t tell you who!) There was no hanging around with this book, the suspense started straight at chapter one and didn’t let up at all! Poor Bethany spent most of the book trying to keep herself from being arrested for Calum’s murder and trying to prove her innocence. The suspense of someone knowing what really happened and was taunting Bethany with photos and notes was unbearable! There were so many different people that the killer could have been, it was such hard work trying to work out who it really was!

I liked Bethany’s character, although it had to be said that she had obviously bought most of this upon herself by having the affair in the first place. One criticism was when you eventually find out who the killer was, you realise that the whole plot relied on Bethany behaving in a certain way and not doing certain things! Thankfully she did what it was thought she would do, else we wouldn’t have been given this great, ‘on the edge of your seat’ book!

It was a rollercoaster of a story, with so many red herrings I lost count! The whole story reminded me so much of “Apple Tree Yard” and I would certainly love to see this made into a TV series! If you love a psychological thriller then this is the book for you!

Five Stars!

I really enjoyed this book. Excellent storyline and great main characters. I would recommend this book.

OH MY! I've just raced through this book. I couldn't read it quick enough as I was so drawn in from the first page to the last.
Bethany is a photographer working for wealthy client and celebrity Calum Bradley, and is having a very secret affair with him. When Calum is murdered Bethany is the number one suspect, and so she has to prove her innocence before her husband Jason finds out about the affair. Her best friend Alex is a lawyer so may be able to help her.
But then she starts receiving threatening notes and her life is in danger from someone who wants to keep her quiet.
This is a fantastic debut. Can't wait for the author's next one.

A superb debut psychological thriller by Elle Croft.Bethany is a photographer working for the rich celebrity Calum Bradley who she is also having an affair with which for obvious reasons she must keep secret.But when he is found murdered Bethany's life starts to fall apart as she is accused of his murder and her husband Jason finally finds out what she has been up to.With no but her best friend Alex to turn to Bethany has to try and prove her innocence while trying to find out who really did kill Calum.But there is someone who is determined to stop her.The book is full of twists and turns which had me gripped to the very last chapter and an ending which i never saw coming.An excellent 5 star read from Elle Croft a new name in the psychological thriller game !!