In "His Perfect Wife" by Natasha Bell, Alexandra met Marc while home in England on Christmas break. At the time, she was pursuing her dream of studying art in Chicago. Impulsively, "Alex" (as friends and Marc refer to her) abandoned her MFA program and became absorbed in her new loving, solid relationship with Marc, which quickly turned into a marriage followed by motherhood.
Alex is now comfortable and working at a local university while in the throes of a middle class life caring for her family, running kids to school and various extracurricular activities. Their life is fairly average and seemingly happy. Then inexplicably, Alex disappears. Her bicycle was found abandoned at a local park and there is blood at the scene.
By all accounts, Alex has been kidnapped. The police believe she may be dead. Her family and friends are naturally devastated.
The truth is Alex is being held against her will, though her captor's identity is not immediately revealed to us. During this imprisonment, Alex has only her memories of Marc and the girls to keep her company. At home, Marc is grieving and adrift. He becomes obsessed with finding Alex. Many months roll by, and Marc is the only person who still believes she is alive. He channels all his emotional energy into finding her, which leads him in a direction he never imagined.
Author Natasha Bell grew up in Somerset, England, and studied English literature at the University of York. This is Bell's first novel - though its sophistication and complexity seem like something you would expect from a more seasoned writer. It is smart, well written and definitely suspenseful. It was not predictable in the least. By the conclusion, I had far more questions than answers, but in a satisfying, thought-provoking way.
I was first introduced to this in my non-work book club and quickly knew I had to share it with the library's Fiction at Noon group. Most members of both groups agreed they were as intrigued and shocked by this book as I was. It made an excellent book club selection, and I would recommend it to any club looking for new titles. The library owns both physical and digital copies of this book.
Claudia Cook is library director at Missouri River Regional Library.