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Iris and Will have been married for seven blissful years, and though they are coming up on the seven-year itch, their love for one another has not waned. So yes, this is romantic suspense. On the morning that they start to try for a child, Will gives Iris a beautiful ring to symbolize their relationship and then takes off on a business trip to Florida. A couple of hours later, when a plane headed Seattle falls from the sky killing all on board, Iris counts her lucky stars that it was not Will's plane. Only it was – somehow, Will's name is on the manifest for the Seattle flight.
Over the next few weeks, Iris cycles between intense grief and a burning desire to know why Will got on that plane headed to the opposite coast of the country. She soon discovers, with the help of her twin brother, that everything she knew about her husband is a lie, except that he did love her deeply. He has friends she didn't know about, grew up in Seattle, not Memphis as he had said, and came from a very troubled background. His love for his beautiful home in Atlanta makes more sense, as it is a clear contrast to his life growing up in the projects.
Iris is a psychologist at an elite private school where she endeavors to help spoiled rich kids accept personal accountability and take responsibility for their actions. This aspect of the book drew me in, as I have worked in independent schools for over twenty years and find virtually any book set in their halls interesting. It was a disappointment to me that Iris' work setting played a very minor role in the book. I believe it was included simply as a means to help Iris' actions in the surprise ending make sense.
Will's career as a cyber security expert was also a plot device, this time to provide substance to the threatening texts from unidentifiable sources that Iris receives as she investigates her husband's past. As Iris uncovers enough information to make her question whether her husband was actually on the plane that fatally crashed, the texts become more ominous and increase in number. Iris finds herself fighting for her life by the end.
THE MARRIAGE LIE is a lightweight book, though it does raise the question of how possible it would be to live a lie like Will did. It provides an entertaining few hours of reading.
§ Sharon Mensing is the Head of School of Emerald Mountain School, an independent school in the mountains of Colorado, where she lives, reads, and enjoys the outdoors.
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing, January 2017
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