Review: The Pocket Wife by Susan Crawford

Publisher: William Morrow
Released: 2015
Source: Library
Rating: Recommend, Read it!

Description:

An amazing talent makes her debut with this stylish psychological thriller—with the compelling intrigue of The Silent Wife and Turn of Mind and the white-knuckle pacing of Before I Go to Sleep —in which a woman suffering from bipolar disorder cannot remember if she murdered her friend during a breakdown.

Dana Catrell is horrified to learn she was the last person to see her neighbor Celia alive. Suffering from a devastating mania, a result of her bipolar disorder, Dana finds that there are troubling holes in her memory, including what happened on the afternoon of Celia's death. As evidence starts to point in her direction, Dana struggles to clear her name before her own demons win out.

Is murder on her mind - or is it all in her head?

The closer she comes to piecing together shards of her broken memory, the more Dana falls apart. Is there a murderer lurking inside her . . . or is there one out there in the shadows of reality, waiting to strike again? A story of marriage, murder and madness, The Pocket Wife explores the world through the foggy lens of a woman on the edge.

Thoughts: 

The Pocket Wife was good. I really enjoyed reading this one. When Dana wakes up from a drunken afternoon, she hears sirens outside. The ambulance pulls up at her neighbors house. She walks over and discovers that her friend Celia has been killed. Dana doesn't remember a whole lot from this afternoon but she knows she was drinking with Celia. She may have been the last person to see her alive.  If only she can piece together her memory and remember the afternoon... As evidence starts to point toward Dana, it doesn't look good. 

Readers learn that Dana is bipolar and her manic episodes start to flare up. She becomes so unreliable as a narrator that you don't know if she's telling the truth. You really do feel for her though. Dana keeps the reader guessing. The Pocket Wife is full of complex secondary characters that really help build the story. Dana's husband is not the supportive type and she has no where to turn. Her marriage is falling apart, and Dana is on the verge of losing herself. 

This story was not predictable, but the ending didn't leave me blown away. I thought Crawford did an amazing job putting readers in Dana's head. It worked really well, and kept me engrossed in the story. I'm happy that I finally got to this one, and I will definitely read more from the author. She has another book called The Other Widow. If you're looking for a quick read, that will keep you guessing. This is a good one.