The Loving Husband

Written by Christobel Kent

Narrated by Clare Corbett

Fran Hall and her husband Nathan have moved with their two children to a farmhouse on the edge of the Fens - a chance to get away from London and have a fresh start.

But when Fran wakes one night to find Nathan gone, she makes a devastating discovery. As questions about her husband and her relationships start to mount, Fran's life begins to spiral out of control.

What is she hiding from the police about her marriage, and does she really know the man she shared her bed with?

The Loving Husband is read by Clare Corbett.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Little, Brown (Hachette UK) Audio
• Release date: Apr 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781405534697

Christobel Kent

Christobel Kent was born in London and grew up in London and Essex, including a stint on the Essex coast on a Thames barge with three siblings and four step-siblings, before reading English at Cambridge. She has worked in publishing and TEFL teaching, and has lived in Modena, in northern Italy, and in Florence. She has written several novels set in Italy, including The Drowning River and A Murder in Tuscany, and lives in Cambridge with her husband and five children.

Reviews for The Loving Husband

[shazjhb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good mystery. Did not guess all the complications of the book. It dragged a bit I. The middle.

[kbranfield-837433 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

4.5 stars.

The Loving Husband by Christobel Kent is a suspenseful murder mystery set in a rural village in Great Britain.

Fran Hall lives with her husband Nathan and their two young children, four year old Emme and 3 month old Ben on a rundown farm close to where Nathan grew up. Since their move from London, Fran has become increasingly isolated as Nathan controls just about every aspect of their life. Awakening to discover Nathan missing from their bed, she makes a horrifying discovery when she finds his lifeless body in a ditch on their property. The investigators assigned to her case, DS Doug Gerard and DC Ed Carswell, are convinced Fran knows more than she is telling but does this mean she is a killer?

Fran was never overly thrilled with the move from London, but it seems like the best way to put her mistakes behind her. The farmhouse is isolated and somewhat dilapidated, but she is trying to make the best of the situation for her family's sake. While Nathan has a thriving business that takes him away from home quite frequently and an active social life, Fran's days revolve around her children and keeping the peace with her husband. It is not until Nathan is murdered that the inconsistencies in his life become more apparent and Fran is somewhat surprised to discover she does not much at all about the man she has shared her life with more than five years.

While DS Gerard and DS Carswell are initially solicitous when dealing with Fran, it does not take long for her to realize they are not on her side. She is not exactly forthcoming with all of the details of the night Nathan was murdered but under the circumstances, her hesitance is understandable. The only person involved in the investigation that she feels comfortable with is Family Liaison Officer DC Ali Compton. However, Fran is unsure she can completely trust Ali so she continues to maintain her silence about some of the events that occurred the night of Nathan's murder.

Fran is horribly confused about the information that is uncovered during the investigation . As she reflects back on her relationship with Nathan, she begins to realize how isolated she has become. She also starts to recognize how much of herself she has given up over the years in order to keep Nathan happy. Fran is dismayed by her inability to answer basic questions about her husband's business dealings or who he socializes with in his downtime. With every new clue that emerges, she cannot help but wonder about Nathan's motivation for marrying her but the reason for his actions eludes Fran.

The Loving Husband is a suspense-laden domestic mystery that moves at a moderately fast pace. Christobel Kent cleverly keeps the killer's identity and motive for the crime a closely guarded secret with brilliantly plotted twists and turns and a few well-paced red herrings. The novel comes to quite a stunning conclusion that is virtually impossible to predict. An absolutely riveting mystery that fans of the genre do not want to miss.

[sassybrit · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm reviewing The Loving Husband by Christobel Kent. Here are my thoughts:

^^ Fran and her husband Nathan have recently upped sticks to rural Cambridgeshire with their two young children. But Fran's life is turned upside down when she discovers Nathan outside. Not only is he dead, but he's been murdered.

^^ Under suspicion herself, Fran decides to find out what her husband was up to and along the way she uncovers far more than she expected. Is the detective right? Is she as guilty as he thinks? After all, everyone knows when a spouse is murdered it's nearly always their other half that did it, right?

^^ This is another one of those books which took me by surprise, because it had so much more to it than expected. Honestly, I'm sure the standard of these "domestic" type psychological thrillers is getting higher.

^^ There was a moment in this story where I realised what was happening and my blood literally ran cold -- it was so good. I love it when a book affects me like that. It really made my heart race and my reading pace speed up! Every good book should do this.

^^ Incidentally, this is close to where I live and I recognise a few place names, so I could really picture where I thought this could be set adding to the suspense and intrigue of my read.

Overall: I enjoyed this immensely and really like this author's writing style. Since she is fairly local I am doubly keen to read more of her work and maybe bump into her at a book signing -- in a non-stalkerish way, of course.

[vanessacw · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One wintry night Fran Hall wakes up to find her husband absent and, after a frantic search, finds him dead in a ditch. As the police delve deeper into the case and Fran becomes the prime suspect, dark secrets are revealed. Just what was her husband keeping hidden about his life and is Fran hiding something herself? Nothing is as it seems!This was quite an intriguing psychological thriller, even though I wasn't particularly enamoured of the writing style. It seemed a little disjointed but I wondered whether it was trying to depict the main character's agitated state of mind. Nevertheless, I found it a compelling mystery. I was eager to read on to find out how it ended. There were plenty of twists and turns to keep me on my toes and a fair few dysfunctional characters to keep me interested. I was never sure who the killer was until the final reveal.This is the first book I have read by Christobel Kent and I enjoyed it enough to want to read another one!3.5*

[flourgirl49 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Here are the reasons why I didn't like this book: (1) It's by a British author (close-minded of me, I know) which means the language and style are different, and the author uses British colloquialisms with which I'm not familiar, interrupting the flow of the story while I try to figure out what she's talking about; (2) the main character, Fran, often speaks in stuttering, halting, fragmented sentences which was extremely irritating - could you just finish a thought, girl?; (3) there's not a single likable person in the book - oh, wait, maybe baby Ben who is not yet speaking; and (4) the book was much too long only to arrive at an ending that was unsatisfactorily wrapped up in just a few pages.

[linda.a. · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I found the characters in this story to be neither likeable nor credible; the plotting seemed to lack any convincing coherence; there were frequent and irritating time-shifts and, to cap it all, it has a title which is certainly not descriptive of the relationship between Fran and her murdered husband Nathan! Once I had finished this book I found myself wondering why on earth I had wasted so much precious reading time hoping that it would improve! I did find that the descriptions of the Fen-land landscape were evocatively convincing, and there were moments when a build-up of tension made me believe that the story would live up to the promises on the cover of the book. However, these moments were never sustained and, by the end, I really couldn’t have cared less about what the outcome was for any of the characters – except perhaps the two children, who were constantly being palmed off on a neighbour! A real disappointment.

[clamato_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found this story scattered and contained far too many characters. At times I had no idea what was going on because of the style of writing. This is the first Christobel Kent book I have read. I could not muster up any feelings for Fran and found the police loathsome except for Ali - who tried her best. Over all it seemed to lack focus and the ending was a disappointment. I will try some of her other books though.

[debkrenzer · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When I read the blurbs for this book, I was like, sign me up. When I started reading it, I was hooked. However, somewhere in there it just kind of slowed down for me. The momentum just kind of tanked. Characters were just coming out of the woodwork. It's like they were just being added to make the suspect list longer.And personally, I think that Fran was an eejit to move out there like that in the first place. They had to jump on that deal right then or lose it? There were several places for sell and had been for sell. No, that all smelled like rotten fish from the beginning. I just couldn't really believe the moving part to way out in the sticks from London. I guess that was my biggest concern and didn't help me with the momentum.As for being compared to "The Silent Wife" - absolutely no way. That book had me so emotional. I wanted to drop kick several of those characters. IMO, if a book can get me that riled up - it's a good book. Plus I LOVED that ending. This book, not so much.Thanks to Farrar, Straus & Giroux for approving my request and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

[sarahstenhouse · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I found this really absorbing and enjoyable - intelligent observations of people and relationships and lots of twists and turns. Ending was a bit forgetable though.

[smik_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is another of those hard to write reviews as I don't want to spoil the discoveries that the reader makes as they get into the book. The police do not seem to believe what Fran can tell them about her husband's last night, and it does seem that she really knows pathetically little about him and his work. He has always been very disarming about what he actually does, and when we find out the truth it is quite shocking. All Fran really knows is that Nathan grew up in this area and that something has drawn him back to live here. Nobody though seems to recognise his name and the details they reveal about what happened in the squat that he lived in are very scant.Fran is surprised to find that the police don't seem to believe her side of the story, and then someone starts stalking her. A man can be seen standing outside the house at night, he leaves chocolates and messages on her car window. You do feel that Fran really knows who he is, but the fact that she won't talk about it results in a number of red herrings. Fran has two children - the 4 month old baby Ben, and a 5 year old Emme who talks about the "bad man".This really is a book where everyone has secrets. Fran is not sure she can even trust the police who seem to have their own agenda. And there are things that Fran doesn't want to tell them.It is one of those books that doesn't really hang together as well as it should. The introduction of the character of Nathan's sister Miranda late in the book is obviously done to solve a few of the plot problems. And yet you read on, because you really want to know what the full story is.