The Innocent Wife by Amy Lloyd

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Arrow (4 Oct. 2018)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9781784757106
• ISBN-13: 978-1784757106
• ASIN: 1784757101

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

You’re in love with a man on Death Row in Florida, convicted of a brutal murder twenty years ago.

You’re convinced he didn’t do it, and you’re determined to prove it. You’re part of a mass online campaign that picks holes in the case, uncovers evidence of police incompetence, and agitates for this miscarriage of justice to be overturned.

Now you’re married to him, and he’s a free man, his conviction thrown out. You have the rest of your lives to spend together.

You’re overjoyed. After all, he’s innocent.

Isn’t he?

 

Review

In todays society we seem to have a huge interest in true crime, and documentaries like The Making of a Murderer are increasingly popular.  Amy Lloyd takes this idea and makes it the centre of her debut novel The Innocent Wife.  Dennis Danson has spent eighteen years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.  He has been at the centre of a Netflix documentary and a book, all looking at how unsafe his conviction is. Into this story comes Samantha, she has seen these documentaries and believes Dennis to be innocent of his crime.  A correspondence quickly sees her move to America and marry Dennis whilst he is still on Death Row, but his conviction gets over turned and their relationship takes on a new dimension.

This is a very interesting concept, and certainly had me gripped from the beginning.  The reader is a voyeur on Sam and Dennis’s life now he is out of prison.  Suddenly they are famous, interviewed on television shows, in the newspapers, plastered across social media and given book deals.  The social media aspect was really interesting, celebrities tweeting about freeing Dennis and influencing their followers, people making judgements on Dennis and Sam, trolling them.  It certainly demonstrates the impact social media can have, it can make or break someone, cause hurt and pleasure depending on the tweet and famous people can make a huge difference to the opinion of the masses. When Dennis was convicted there was no internet or social media, so he has to learn and its fair to say makes a few mistakes, not use to people attacking him directly.

I found most of the characters in this book to be flawed with some psychological issues. Most of us would be worried about Sam travelling half way around the world to meet and marry an inmate on death row.  This maybe explained by her low self esteem, a need to be loved, jealous and always seeking validation. Through the book we find more about Sam and the dramatic end to her last relationship. Dennis obviously has a huge adjustment to make, the world has changed in twenty years and he has to learn how live in todays society.  His abusive childhood and twenty years incarcerated take a toll on his mental health, so together with Sam, their relationship is strained, they don’t know each other and didn’t expect to be thrown together so quickly.  I found I could feel their tension, their unease and suspicion of each other throughout the book, and I have to say it made me feel uncomfortable and on edge in a good way. Supporting characters like Lindsay, Dennis childhood friend and Police Officer Harries also seem to have agendas and lives that have more answers the questions; slightly crazy comes to mind.

As a thriller The Innocent Wife is a huge success.  It is a slow burner, the tension building throughout and it feels you are waiting for something to happen, but you don’t know what.  The sense of unease and menace that kept me on the edge of my seat and I literally couldn’t put the book down.  Even if someone is cleared of a crime there is always a scent of suspicion that follows them around, they are never really free of the crime, and it is this and the dynamic of Sam and Dennis’s relationship that keeps you gripped. A fabulous concept that makes a nail-biting and suspenseful read, simply brilliant.

 

Thank you for reading my review of The Innocent Wife, I hope you enjoyed it.  I really appreciate your support and your sharing, liking and commenting on my reviews.