Audiobook Review: My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney
Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 3 of 5 stars
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Macmillan Audio (January 20, 2026)
Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
Author Information: Website
Narrators: Bel Powley, Henry Rowley, Richard Armitage
Alice Feeney is an author I can usually depend on to deliver an edge-of-your-seat thriller, and on its surface, My Husband’s Wife sounded like it would be exactly that. So, imagine my disappointment when it did not work for me the way it clearly has for so many others. Now, I’m aware I’m in the minority with this one, but somewhere along the way I felt the story just went so far off the rails that I stopped enjoying myself.
The book opens with Eden Fox, an artist about to have her career breakout moment, deciding on an evening run to blow off some steam before her first gallery exhibition. As always, she leaves all her valuables including her phone, wallet, and wedding ring at home before she heads out. When she returns, however, she discovers something very wrong. The key to her house no longer works. Someone answers the door to see what’s going on, and it’s a stranger who looks remarkably like Eden—similar build, hair, facial features—and she claims that there must be a mistake, because she lives there, not Eden. Then, a man come downstairs to investigate the commotion, and Eden is relieved because it’s her husband, Harrison. He’ll sort out this mess and kick this crazy lady out of their house! Except to Eden’s shock, Harrison stares back at her with no recognition in his eyes. He insists the strange woman beside him is his wife, and that he has no idea who Eden is but if she doesn’t leave the property, they will have no choice but to call the police. Carrying no proof of her identity, Eden is forced to flee into the night, feeling frightened, hurt, and confused.
Running alongside Eden’s story is a second one following Birdy, a reclusive woman living in London who has just received a devastating diagnosis and may only have months to live. That same night, however, she is visited by a representative of her estranged grandmother’s estate and learns she has unexpectedly inherited a house in the seaside village of Hope Falls, where her family once lived. When Birdie arrives at the property, affectionately known to all the locals as Spyglass, she discovers a letter among her late grandmother’s belongings from a mysterious corporation claiming it can predict the exact date of a person’s death. Given the timing of her diagnosis, Birdy’s curiosity is understandable, and she decides to look more closely into the company’s mission and history. As her investigation unfolds, the novel gradually stitches together these two seemingly separate narratives, linking half-truths and coincidences that may not be coincidences at all.
For the most part, this works. I’ll say this about all Alice Feeney’s books: her prose is snappy, the atmosphere is intense, and the pace is so brisk that the thought of taking a pause is nearly impossible. I was genuinely curious and looking forward to the reveals for at least the first half of My Husband’s Wife, even when I wasn’t entirely sure what the hell was going on. After all, confusion is part of the deal here, completely by design, and the plot is structured in a way to make the reader feel disoriented.
Where the story started to lose me was in the second half, with its handling of twists. Not because there were too few, but because there were too many! At a certain point, the story completely gives up on building upon its own foundations and begins pulling the rug from under itself, over, and over, and over again. Shocking revelations became less about providing answers and more about being completely unpredictable, even if it doesn’t really make sense or throws everything that we know about the characters out the window. When you realize that anything can change at any second and none of the truths that were previously established matter, it all starts to feel rather pointless.
To be clear, I have nothing against twists. It’s one of the best reasons to read thrillers and why I enjoy the genre so much. But at the same time, My Husband’s Wife was a bit much even by Feeney standards. Thing is, I don’t want to remove all thinking from the equation. I’d like to be given the chance to form coherent theories and emotional attachments to characters that could hold out to the next chapter. Without that expectation, I’m afraid it undercuts tension rather than heightens it for me.
That said, the audiobook narration is fantastic. Read by Bel Powley, Henry Rowley, and Richard Armitage, all three delivered strong and engaging performances. I’m especially a big fan of Armitage, who does incredible voice work on anything he does, not just Alice Feeney audiobooks. To be honest, even when the story frustrated me, the narration kept me listening.
In the end, I think My Husband’s Wife will be very much a “your mileage may vary” thriller. For me, the book started strong but ultimately collapsed under the weight of its need to induce whiplash, leaving me entertained but mentally exhausted and emotionally detached. But like I said, I suspect I am the outlier here, and fans who love Alice Feeney’s books despite or perhaps because of her bold, major-suspension-of-disbelief twists will probably have a great time.
The BiblioSanctum 
This is an amazing review Mogsy! And with your « When you realize that anything can change at any second and none of the truths that were previously established matter, it all starts to feel rather pointless. » you expressed eloquently what I have sometimes felt in stories where I went from engaged to discouraged! Without being able to express why but you did it! Yes I think if I can’t rely on logic somehow the book annoys me. I am excellent at spotting inconsistencies in stories and they drive me bonkers because somehow « it doesn’t add up ». Well what you described here has the same impact to my brain I think and when that happens I am super annoyed. What’s the point indeed…
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