The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve: Slow Burn Suspense of a Husband’s Betrayal

This mystery thriller has a strong beginning, drawing the reader in with a multitude of questions. A wife living a blissful domestic life is interrupted by news that her pilot husband has been killed in an air crash off the cost of Ireland. But the nightmare is just beginning when Kathryn soon realises her husband was not the man she thought he was.

Buy from Amazon

Thriller of a Double Life

Shreve’s strength lies in her compelling narrative of the protagonist’s inner thoughts and resultant difficult emotions when investigator, Roger keeps coming back with questions about the cause of the crash. Had it been suicide? Political? An accident? Nothing seems to fit.

This thriller demonstrates how a woman living in domestic blissful life can be blind to her husband’s indiscretions. Her belief their marriage had been watertight falls apart, as well as her former identity which she questions. What had her role been in this long-standing marriage?

Revealing a Murky Past

After encountering mysterious notes on scraps of paper, Kathryn takes a trip to London to discover their meaning. And here, the full, ugly picture begins to emerge about her husband and his betrayal is laid bare. Despite having a supportive network, namely her own mother, Julia, Roger from the Agency and a teenage daughter, Kathryn is ultimately alone in a strange place.

I empathised for Kathryn, robbed of her ability to express anger towards her husband, and of feeling vulnerable under the questions of Roger, whose motives were at times questionable. However, this might have been more a reflection of Kathryn’s state of mind.

Shreve is great at conveying what it is like to experience conflicting emotions and misplaced trust, which I thought was brilliantly described. But this s a slow burn of a thriller, rather than a rollercoaster ride, but the pacing fitted the theme. The suspense is drip-fed in timely portions, retaining the story’s credulity. The momentum really picks up over the final third of the novel, which I read in one sitting