Book Review: Dead to Her | Sarah Pinborough

Love, status, money, power, affairs, voodoo, and murder set in the upper society of Savannah, Georgia in Sarah Pinborough’s latest mind-bending thriller, Dead to Her. I hate to say this, but I need to be a bit vague in this review because this one takes a direction that you won’t see coming from the outset! A must-read thriller this spring, and the perfect dark-side to love thriller for this Valentine’s Day!

About the Book | Dead to Her

Being the second wife can be murder…

“Once a cheat, always a cheat,” they say. Marcie Maddox has worked hard to get where she is after the illicit affair that started her new life a few years ago. But her world of country clubs, yachts and sumptuous houses in Savannah, Georgia, isn’t easy to maintain, no matter how hard she tries. Nor is keeping her husband, Jason, truly interested.

So, when Jason’s boss brings home a hot new wife from his trip to London, the young Mrs. William Radford IV isn’t quite the souvenir everyone expected. Sexy, drop-dead gorgeous and black—Keisha quickly usurps Marcie’s place as the beautiful second wife. But when Marcie sees the extra spark in the room when Keisha and Jason are together and their obvious, magnetic attraction, the gloves come off.

Revenge is best served cold, but in the steamy Savannah heat, blood runs so hot that this summer it might just boil over into murder.

Review | Dead to Her

This one is hard to not spoil, which is painful for me because I have so much to say! Set in Savannah, Georgia, Dead to Her shows that even the most regal of old southern money and society have their tawdry and salacious secrets. The book is told in four sections, and with each new section there is another twist that you won’t see coming and alters the course of the book. At halfway through, I had no idea where the book was going, and by the end I was delighted by the twisted way everything came together. The epilogue itself will leave your mind spinning!

Marcie Maddox is no longer the youngest and most beautiful second wife in the small close-knit wealthy society in Savannah. After an illicit affair, Marcie replaced Jason’s first wife and cemented herself in this world she doesn’t technically belong in. But Marcie does her best to fit in. She goes to church every Sunday, though it often bores her to tears. She lunches with the right wives, she dresses the right way, and she redecorates the expensive home Jason has just bought to have the right sort of look.

But when Jason’s boss brings home an even younger, more beautiful, and black wife from a trip to London, Marcie instantly goes on alert. Keisha is gorgeous and seems to have that magnetic quality that keeps men running. Marcie sees Jason flirting with Keisha. She doesn’t trust Keisha, and she’s starting to wonder if she trusts her husband.

As the dynamics among the characters heat up through the first half, I found myself unsure what direction it would take. Though the first half may seem a tad slower, the second half takes off at breakneck speed. By the end you won’t be able to put it down!

I loved the setting in Savannah’s high society. I did part of the book on audio and the narrator was fantastic. Those slow, wealthy southern drawls were perfect and really set the tone for the story. Marcie was a fascinating character, and a great lead. Keisha was less interesting to me at first, but what I love about the way Sarah Pinborough writes is that neither Marcie nor Keisha will end up being the stereotype you thought they were. The characters are full of surprises and trust me when I say there is much more to come from them than what you see at first.

And finally, the voodoo! This was a fun twist for me, adding an element of the supernatural to the story that I enjoyed. Like many of the characters of the book, I found myself believing (or at least not NOT believing) in the voodoo that wove throughout the story. It fit the setting perfectly and really enhanced the story. This is a fantastic book and one I recommend to those who like a little revenge and murder in high society!

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and William Morrow for my copy. Opinions are my own.

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Sarah Pinborough is the number one Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of the psychological thriller Behind Her Eyes, and more than twenty other novels and novellas, including The Death House and a young adult thriller, 13 Minutes. She has also written for the BBC. She lives in England.

Find out more about Sarah at her website, and connect with her on Twitter and Instagram.

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