The Last Wife: A Novel

Karen Hamilton

Jul 2020 · Harlequin

About this ebook

In this domestic thriller by the author of The Perfect Girlfriend, a woman fulfills her late friend’s last wish only to uncover a terrifying web of lies.

Nina and Marie were best friends—until Nina was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Before she died, Nina asked Marie to fulfill her final wishes.

But her mistake was in thinking Marie was someone she could trust.

What Nina didn’t know was that Marie always wanted her beautiful life, and that Marie has an agenda of her own. She’ll do anything to get what she wants.

Marie thinks she can keep her promise to her friend’s family on her own terms. But what she doesn’t know is that Nina was hiding explosive secrets of her own . . .

“[A] gripping thriller . . . Everybody has a nasty side, but that’s just one of the pleasures of this cunning whodunit. A devious plot is another. Hamilton knows how to keep the pages turning.” —Publishers Weekly

“If there ever was a story about being careful what you wish for, this is it. A phenomenal read!” —Hannah Mary McKinnon, international bestselling author of Sister Dear

“I could not tear myself away as Marie claimed the life of her dead friend Nina with devastating consequences. This is a five-star, one-sitting read.” —Fiona Cummins, bestselling author of Rattle

Ratings and reviews

This was a kind of painful read. The story wasn't bad per se it just didn't work for me. I really just felt like the author tried so hard to make it thrilling and complicated that the entire time you feel out of sorts. She is fulfilling a death bed promise and has absolutely no idea just how convoluted the entire promise and execution would be. She realizes too late that things are not as they appear and that she may have been played. But that's not it. When the truth comes out she finds herself reeling and learns that true friends are hard to find. The characters truly left me scratching my head throughout the book wondering why, on so many levels. It just didn't work for me but that's my opinion and mine alone.

This heralds my first experience reading this wily author and I am ever so impressed, her clever storylines were cunningly paced, well nuanced, and laced with brain-tickling intrigue while taut with tension. Her compelling characters were deliciously twisty, uniquely tainted, and curiously torqued. Written from the first person POV of Marie, who was obviously emotionally and a bit mentally unstable as well as a compulsive liar, obsessively driven, paranoid, and riddled with anxiety, just to name a few of her most pesky symptoms. The insightfully written and profoundly shrewd use of inner musings and observations detailing Marie’s obsessive and deceptive traits and compulsions were spot on and brilliantly crafted. I was riveted to my Kindle and thoroughly entertained while I immersed myself in Marie’s troubled yet compelling gray matter and devious schemes. It was divinely twisty.

About the author

Karen Hamilton spent her childhood in Angola, Zimbabwe, Belgium and Italy and worked as a flight attendant for many years. Karen is a recent graduate of the Faber Academy and, having now put down roots in Hampshire to raise her young family with her husband, she satisfies her wanderlust by exploring the world through her writing. The Perfect Girlfriend is her first novel.