Psychological Thriller Review: The Replacement Wife | Darby Kane

A great hook and compelling twists make The Replacement Wife worth picking up. Imagine if one of your family members has a troubling history of women they date going missing or winding up dead? While this wasn’t my favorite by Darby Kane, it’s a solid psychological thriller with a great ending that kept me hooked!

About the Book | The Replacement Wife

A domestic suspense novel that asks, how many wives and girlfriends should disappear before your family notices?

Elisa Wright is a mom and wife, living a nice, quiet life in a nice, quiet town. She’s also convinced her brother-in-law is a murderer. Josh has one dead wife and one missing fiancée, and though he grieved for them he starts dating someone new. Elisa fears for that woman’s safety, and she desperately wants to know what happened to her friend, Josh’s missing fiancée.

Searching for clues means investigating her own family. And she doesn’t like what she finds. A laptop filled with incriminating information. Other women.

But when Elisa becomes friends with Josh’s new girlfriend and starts to question things she thinks are true, Elisa wonders if the memories of a horrible incident a year ago have finally pushed her over the edge and Josh is really innocent. With so much at stake, Elisa fights off panic attacks and a strange illness. Is it a breakdown or something more? The race is on to get to the truth before another disappearance because there’s a killer in the family… or is there?  

Review | The Replacement Wife

Darby Kane is a must-read author for me ever since her debut, Pretty Little Wife. What I love about many of her books is her main character, who is typically a strong female lead who is underestimated by those around her. I would say that is technically true in The Replacement Wife, though it takes longer to see that side of Elisa than in previous books.

Elisa is a wife and mother who rarely leaves the house after a traumatic incident several months prior. Her husband Harrison is supportive of her stepping away from work. Their son Nathan is a handful, but Elisa appreciates getting more time with him. As the book opens, Elisa is suspicious of her brother-in-law Josh after his girlfriend (and Elisa’s dear friend) Abby went missing.

Elisa is frustrated that Josh and Harrison brush off her concerns about Abby’s disappearance. Meanwhile, Josh seems to have moved on quickly to a new woman named Rachel whom he says he met the year before. Did he start seeing Rachel before Abby even disappeared? Even more troubling, Elisa finds some of Abby’s belongings hidden away and becomes even more convinced that something nefarious happened.

When she learns that Josh was married before she met Harrison and that wife met an untimely demise, Elisa’s instincts are on red alert. Harrison won’t listen to her, but Elisa presses on looking into Josh. She not only fears for her missing friend Abby, but now Elisa is worried about Josh’s new girlfriend Rachel. Meanwhile a mysterious woman keeps showing up places where Elisa is. But the more she tries to uncover what is really going on, the more Harrison and Josh are concerned about her mental well-being. Is Elisa on to something or is she losing her mind like they say she is?

The Replacement Wife is definitely a page turner, and I wanted to keep reading to find out what was really going on with Josh. There were so many clues and moments that seemed suspicious. While usually this makes a great thriller, in this book they were almost exhausting at times. There were so many clues that it became uncomfortable how Harrison and even Elisa doubted what she was saying.

Harrison seemed supportive, but at the same time, we learn that he never told Elisa about Josh’s late wife and the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death. This seems like a big omission and it made me question their relationship. I often wondered if Harrison could be trusted after that information comes out.

Elisa is a character that I often found exhausting. I like an unstable main character, but Elisa verged on whiny and it took too long for us to learn why she was so fragile. I think if I had known about the incident at work sooner, I would have felt more sympathetic for her. That said, she has good instincts. Josh is an infuriating character, constantly stopping by Elisa and Harrison’s house without asking first. He doesn’t seem as worried as he should that Abby disappeared.

Elisa is deeply worried about Abby’s disappearance, but doesn’t know how to go about tracking her down. Meanwhile Josh’s new girlfriend Rachel is a puzzle herself. She seems sharp and put together, and she’s an ally for Elisa. But Rachel also is inconsistent and deceptive. She tells Elisa things aren’t serious between her and Josh, but then other events portray the opposite. She helps Elisa track down clues and is a listening ear, but she doesn’t always keep Elisa’s confidence.

I didn’t know what to make of Rachel, which made her more fun in some ways than Josh. The other interesting mystery was the woman Elisa kept seeing around—first at Harrison’s work, then at Nathan’s school. Why does this woman keep appearing in Elisa’s life and why does Harrison claim to know nothing about her?

Elisa becomes more redeemable as the book goes on. The mysteries and twists kept me reading, though I never really ended up liking Elisa or any of the characters. I found Rachel to be the most intriguing, and I wanted to know how the pieces of the puzzle would come together. I had a lot of theories and this story kept me guessing the full way through.

A solid psychological thriller, though not quite as good as the other books by Darby Kane. I recommend this for fans of domestic suspense and an unreliable narrator.

About the Author | Darby Kane

Darby Kane is a former trial attorney and #1 international bestseller of domestic suspense. Her first two thrillers, Pretty Little Wife and The Replacement Wife, have been optioned for television and featured in numerous venues, including The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Toronto Star, The New York Post, Popsugar, Refinery29, Goodreads, The Skimm, and The Huffington Post.