Jackie Kabler

THE USA TODAY BESTSELLER 'An intriguing and gripping psychological thriller that keeps you guessing as you frantically turn the pages’ Sunday Times bestselling author C. L. Taylor The perfect couple ... or the perfect lie?

The Perfect Couple

Sarah Garnhum

This was highly popular and I had high hopes but the plot was dull and the last bit of the book was even worse than the never ending inner dialogue of the first 75% of the book. Womp

Nicola Smith

Initially quite enjoyed, but the plot twist was quite obvious and the ending a little twee for my liking. 

Mary Baldwin

Some of you will know I have a habit of starting random Kindle reads at bedtime if I finish a current book when my TBR is out of reach - this was one of those books!

The cover didn’t really appeal to me at all, but a quick scan of the blurb and I was in.

Gemma and Danny appear to be; you guessed it, the perfect couple. He’s an IT consultant whilst Gemma is a freelance journalist. After a self confessed whirlwind romance, they married within a year of meeting and the story starts with their move from London to Bristol.

The great thing about this book is that all the scene setting is built cleverly into the story, so there was no “warm up” where you’re wading through 4 chapters of context before anything happens.

Danny goes missing, and on the quest to find him,his (& Gemma’s) stories become intertwined with a Police Investigation. It’s clear that something isn’t as was thought, but that something remains a mystery.

Gemma has help from friends and family as she goes through the ordeal of a missing husband, but on top of that she uncovers some questions about who her husband really is.

[Side note ~ I read a great post by @theobviousmystery all about annotating crime novels and playing along with the solving of the crime. I guess I’ve always done that in my head but with this read I found myself making notes on it and my own theories. I enjoyed it so much and will definitely do it again ~ thanks Hari]

I especially enjoyed how the perspectives in the book change stylistically, lots of the plot is centred on Gemma and her first person perspective, but times we’re drawn into the police investigation the writing is much more driven by character dialogue and this works really well.

There were 3 separate occasions where I thought I had the ending figured, but I was wrong! For me that’s always a bonus in a thriller.

There were some elements I didn’t like, some of the legal/investigative developments were not believable in terms of process and procedure. But, on the plus side this meant that there was no overkill of procedural prose.

This was a really enjoyable read. 

Emily

This book gripped my from the start, was an interesting read. Dragged on a little too long at the end for me & I was a little disappointed in the ending, but i’m not sure why.

Amanda Autumn Berrey

four stars

a little predictable but still enjoyable! i love the writing style and the characters were actually really good and pretty believable.

Thank you Netgalley, Harper Impulse and Killer Reads, and Jackie Kabler for this Advanced Copy in exchange for an honest review. 

Gemma has it all...a new home in a beautiful city, a loving husband, the amazing job and nothing but perfection as far as the future is concerned. 

She loves her job as a freelance journalist and at times needs to travel for short bursts of time. When she goes out of town this weekend, her husband Danny promises to welcome her home with a home cooked meal. Wow, she really lucked out finding the perfect husband. She finally finishes her business and after a long trip back, she finds her house .....empty. Where's Danny??

Days and weeks go by without a word from him. Confusion, Fear, Sadness and Anger are all emotions she is feeling. How could he do this to her?? 

The police aren't much help, there seems to be a serial killer that is killing people that look just like Danny! 

Just how angry was Gemma that Danny would disappear like that without as much as goodbye. Angry enough to punish him??

I really liked this book as it kept me interested throughout. I would like to see this as a first book of a series and I was left with questions about the ending.

Lovisa

Saken är att jag gillade den här boken riktigt mycket ända fram till slutet och då föll den ganska platt för mig. Jag tycker en del saker förblev utan svar och det kändes så onödigt när resten av boken faktiskt va bra gjord :(
Vi ska ju inte bara prata om vissa åsikter som klargjordes heller.

Jessica Nottingham

Where do I start? The Perfect Couple sums itself up pretty well with that cover. Jackie Kabler has no qualms with instantly placing the reader into the center of a perplexing mystery. Gemma arrives home to realize that Danny, her husband, is missing. No sign of foul play, no missing items, just…. gone. Even worse for her, the police start to suspect that she is the one behind his disappearance. After all, she’s the only one who has seen him in weeks. Who’s to say that she isn’t trying to cover up something nefarious? What follows is a slow burn chase, with Gemma trying desperately to figure out what on Earth is going on.

Now I have to say that I definitely enjoyed Gemma’s character. She, unsurprisingly, starts the story out in a whole heap of shock and feels unable to do much. However as the story progresses, I found myself wholeheartedly cheering her on. She was unwilling to rely on the police to solve things. Gemma was smart. Let me tell you. If I were in her position, I don’t think I would have had half the amount of tenacity and stubbornness that she did. Her determination was refreshing, and I loved how outside of the box her personal investigations were.

I also very much enjoyed the way that the plot was laid out. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything for all you potential readers out there. Still I feel that it’s safe to say that this book has a good handle on slowly laying out the clues and the facts, allowing the reader to feel like they are uncovering things right alongside Gemma. The pacing was pretty solid, and it was nice that there were other characters that made their way into Gemma’s story that felt like they fit in perfectly. If this book was a puzzle, it would have been a challenging one but also one that felt like all the pieces were meant to be there.

So, why the three star rating? My biggest hang up with this story was just that it felt too long for its own good. There were chapters that I ended up just skimming, because most of it was dialogue between the police that were on the case and none of it really seemed to add anything new to the case. This doesn’t change my earlier thought that the pacing was good. It was. There were just some portions that I think could have easily been shortened without losing the overarching mystery plotline. By the time I reached the ending I had actually figured out what was going on, mainly because the filler chapters gave me so much time to mull things around. I’m starting to see that, in most cases, shorter is better when it comes to mystery and thriller books.

All of that aside, this was an enjoyable way to while away a few hours. I kept picturing myself reading this next to a fireplace, snuggled under a comforter, with a cup of hot cocoa. That’s the vibe that it gives off. I hope that you’ll all enjoy it as well!

The Perfect Couple

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