Susan Crawford (2)

The Pocket Wife by Susan Crawford is a highly recommended psychological thriller. The suspense in this debut mystery novel is going to sneak up on you and become quite intense by the end.

After spending an afternoon drinking too much at a neighbor's house, Dana Catrell goes home and naps, only to wake up and discover her neighborhood, Celia Steinhauser, is now dead. Dana was the last known person to see Celia alive, but Dana can't remember much of what happened that afternoon. Between the show more alcohol and her worsening bi-polar disorder, for which she has stopped taking her meds, Dana is unsure of what is real and what is a by-product of her own psyche. Could she possibly have murdered Celia? She vaguely recalls an argument. She doesn't think she could possibly be capable of murder, but she can't be sure. And what happened to Celia's phone and the picture on it, of Dana's husband leering at another woman?

Detective Jack Moss is investigating, but he's got problems of his own. His second wife just left him. It looks like Dana is the most likely suspect, but Kyle, his son from his first marriage, might be involved with the case in some way. Celia was Kyle's GED teacher. Adding to the suspense is the increasing pressure to hurry and solve the case by the prosecutor's office. Chapters alternate between Dana and Jack. While Dana's mania is building and her thoughts are becoming more scattered, Jack is plodding forward with the case, dreading the clues that seem to point to some involvement by his son.

My appreciation of Crawford's The Pocket Wife increased as I continued reading. Dana's mental state seems to make her an unreliable narrator, but one who also seems to have an acuity and awareness of what is going on around her. I knew she was heading toward a breakdown because she knows she is. Because of this, there is almost a surreal quality to what Dana sees and how she perceives it. Are the notes she finds real? Did she really see a figure in a hoodie? And is her husband really the total jerk he seems to be? (And he really is a complete jerk.)

The writing quality and descriptiveness is wonderful in this literary thriller. Crawford excels at setting the tone and pace, which helps to slowly build the suspense. This is a character driven mystery and the characters are all well developed, completely unique individuals. I found the conclusion to be satisfying.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of HarperCollins for review purposes. show less

I won The Pocket Wife via the Goodreads First Reads program. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy.

I really liked this! Dana was a likeable character. I was worried the mental illness would be overdone or unrealistic but it seemed believable. The characters were original and interesting, and overall this book was very engrossing. I finished it in two sittings. I figured out the mystery but I don't think it was terribly predictable.

As for the bad: some of the sentences were really show more clunky and it was sometimes difficult to figure out what was being said. And I noticed a mixed metaphor or two, but I don't know whether that's the sort of thing that gets fixed at this stage of the book's publication.

But anyway. Really good read. Would recommend to fans of psychological mysteries. It's being compared to books like Before I Go to Sleep and Girl on the Train, and I enjoyed Pocket Wife better than those two, so there you go. show less

Dana Catrell has a history of manic episodes due to bipolar disorder. Her husband and son know that she's in a manic phase and are encouraging her to see her therapist. Dana knows that she's close to spiraling out of control, but she also thinks that she just needs to find certain answers before she commits to treatment. Dana needs to find out if she murdered her neighbor and whether or not her husband is having an affair.

The Pocket Wife begins with Dana waking up with little memory of her show more afternoon. She hears a siren and discovers an ambulance at her neighbor Celia's home. Dana knows that she was at Celia's home earlier in the day, but she doesn't remember coming home or going to sleep. Finding out that Celia was murdered causes Dana to question whether or not she's capable of extreme violence. The primary reason behind this thinking is that Celia has indicated that Dana's husband was having an affair and the evidence was a cell-phone picture. These memories are what send Dana off on a haphazard quest for the truth. But will searching for answers to these questions give Dana peace of mind or send her off the deep end.

I found The Pocket Wife to be a rather fast-paced and enjoyable albeit disturbing read. Dana's thoughts and actions jump around quite a bit due to her mania and, as a result, the story jumps around. Is Dana paranoid or is someone sending her threatening notes? Is she seeing things or was there a person in a hoodie in her backyard? It's difficult to separate fiction from reality since she's also hearing the voice of her mother and her Saint Christopher statue is winking and nodding at her. Her husband Peter recognizes that she needs help but doesn't really do anything to help her. There were times when I felt just as unhinged as Dana simply because it felt as if I was falling down the rabbit hole with her. Ms. Crawford does an incredible job at portraying the behavior of a person in a manic phase of bipolar disorder, down to the notion that "I don't need/want medication" way of thinking. If you enjoy reading psychological suspense thrillers then you'll definitely want to read The Pocket Wife. show less

Dana’s neighbor and friend, Celia, has been murdered and Dana is a suspect. But Dana, who suffers from bipolar disorder, hasn’t been taking her medicine, resulting in manic episodes. And there are so many things now that she can’t remember.

For Dana, the day Celia died is all a blur. Could she have killed Celia? They had too much to drink that afternoon, and then there was an argument, and that photo – did Celia really show her a photo of her husband with another woman? And now the show more threatening notes – or did she write them to herself? Is someone lurking outside her house, watching her? Does someone want to kill her too?

Using multiple points of view and written in the third person, the reader experiences both the confusion and jumbled thoughts of Dana, a very unreliable narrator, and Jack Moss, the level-headed detective assigned to solve the case. There are plenty of potential suspects and interesting characters including Dana’s unlikable and uncaring husband, a neighbor obsessed with his volunteer job as the head of the neighborhood watch, and even Celia’s own husband, to keep the pages turning on this fast-paced, tightly-framed mystery.

Multiple plot twists divert suspicion among the characters and keep the reader on edge. And although new information is routinely uncovered, we keep coming back to Dana in her manic, frenzied and confused state as she tries to remember what happened and make things clear in her clouded mind. The ending went in a direction I wasn’t expecting, but it was an acceptable twist in an enjoyable debut novel. show less