The Dead Ex
A Novel
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4.2 • 69 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
From the bestselling author of My Husband's Wife, one man's disappearance throws four women's lives into chaos--who will survive?
Vicki works as an aromatherapist, healing her clients out of her home studio with her special blends of essential oils. She's just finishing a session when the police arrive on her doorstep--her ex-husband David has gone missing. Vicki insists she last saw him years ago when they divorced, but the police clearly don't believe her. And her memory's hardly reliable--what if she did have something to do with it?
Meanwhile, Scarlet and her mother Zelda are down on their luck, and at eight years old, Scarlet's not old enough to know that the "game" her mother forces her to play is really just a twisted name for dealing drugs. Soon, Zelda is caught, and Scarlet is forced into years of foster care--an experience that will shape the rest of her life . . .
David's new wife, Tanya, is the one who reported him missing, but what really happened on the night of David's disappearance? And how can Vicki prove her innocence, when she's not even sure of it herself? The answer lies in the connection among these four women--and the one person they can't escape.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At first blush the only thing middle-aged aromatherapist Vicki Goudman and scrappy eight-year-old delinquent-in-training Scarlet Darling seem to share is that each faces a crucial turning point in their lives at the start of this slow-building but ultimately gripping psychological thriller from Corry (Blood Sisters). In February 2018, Vicki's quiet life in the seaside resort of Penzance, England, is about to implode with the arrival of two detectives investigating the disappearance 15 days earlier of her ex-husband, David, a wealthy property developer. In March 2007, Londoner Scarlet will soon be placed in a Dickensian foster home after her beloved single mom's imprisonment for drug dealing. The dual narratives alternate revealing Vicki's startling past in a very different profession and eventually converge with devastating impact. For those willing to press on through the somewhat deliberate first half, Corry delivers several satisfying plot twists as well as a meditation on the nature of family.)
Customer Reviews
A dark tale
Hard to read. Heavy subject matter. Child abuse, domestic violence, dark characters, mental illness and injustice abound. Reading it was like wearing a heavy wet shroud. I was glad to be done. If that’s your thing, enjoy. It is well written. It’s just dark and uncomfortable for me.