The Hunting Wives | By May Cobb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Review | Mystery Thriller

The Hunting Wives
Author:
Publisher:
Published: May 18th, 2021
Sophie O’Neill left behind an envy-inspiring career and the stressful, competitive life of big-city Chicago to settle down with her husband and young son in a small Texas town. It seems like the perfect life with a beautiful home in an idyllic rural community. But Sophie soon realizes that life is now too quiet, and she’s feeling bored and restless. Then she meets Margot Banks, an alluring socialite who is part of an elite clique secretly known as the Hunting Wives. Sophie finds herself completely drawn to Margot and swept into her mysterious world of late-night target practice and dangerous partying. As Sophie’s curiosity gives way to full-blown obsession, she slips farther away from the safety of her family and deeper into this nest of vipers. When the body of a teenage girl is discovered in the woods where the Hunting Wives meet, Sophie finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation and her life spiraling out of control.     (Goodreads)      

 

 

 

 

 

 

My thoughts

 

 

 

Narrative and Plot

 

 

 

 

 

It’s been a long time since I read a thriller, where I felt frustrated till the end and didn’t know which way it would go. The Hunting Wives is told from the protagonist, Sophie’s perspective. She is, by far, one of the most frustrating protagonist I’ve read in a long time. It makes the story compelling even if the pacing for the first half was lacking a bit.

After the first 200 pages, I thought this was going to be a three star book. But then, it picks up pace and does everything that a thriller does in the last 150 pages. More importantly, it maintains that air of mystery till the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Characters and Conflicts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hunting Wives rightly calls it the nest of vipers. Most of the characters in the story are outrageous and unlikeable. It made me flinch and want to stop reading, and at the same time compelled me to keep going, anyway. And Sophie is the most frustrating one. It’s like one of those characters who walks down the dark hallway at night in a horror movie. You know what her fate is going to be and yet she keeps getting drawn to this situation.

The rest of the Hunting Wives are mysterious and intriguing, to say the least. But Margot remains the most enigmatic of them all. This strong pull that Sophie feels towards her was lost on me in the beginning. But, as the story progresses, it makes sense.

Once the twist kicks in, it is all chaos and carefully weaved like a spider’s web. Sophie herself takes too long to fight for herself. In the end, however, it manages to bring all those pieces together and fit them into the puzzle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, The Hunting Wives lures you into this viper’s nest with the lull of booze and laughter and the deep dark atmosphere of an East Texas forest and then holds your attention with the tangled mess that is the life of these characters. It was uncomfortable, but had my complete attention towards the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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