The Missing Wife by Sam Carrington sounded like another woman-in-danger-psychological-thriller novel. It has an interesting premise: Louisa is turning forty, living with her husband and their teenage daughter, and her newborn son (surprise!) She is exhausted, having trouble remembering and focusing (including on important things, like “did I feed the baby?” And “where did I put the baby?”). All she wants is a good night’s sleep, so when her best friend Tiff and her husband Brian tell her they have arranged for her to have an overnight getaway at a quiet inn, she is thrilled. The LAST thing she wants is to celebrate turning forty, feeling like she does.

Tiff isn’t just Louisa’s BEST friend, she is pretty much her ONLY friend, so Tiff goes to Facebook (which she had set up for Louisa long ago, but Louisa never uses) and invites a boatload of Louisa’s old college classmates to a surprise birthday party. BTW, Louisa doesn’t particularly like surprises, whether it is a birthday party or her newborn son. Among the partygoers is Louisa’s old flame Oliver, who dumped her many years ago.

Oliver’s wife Melissa turns up missing after the party, and it seems like everyone remembers what happened that night differently. Except Louisa, who doesn’t remember much of anything, so she isn’t much help to the police who naturally look at Oliver as the first suspect. (I never did get why Louisa was popping pills or what they were, exactly).

So here we are, a thriller that involves a missing woman. It’s become a pretty standard genre, and you know what you will get when you read a book like this, including some unexpected twists and the main character in some kind of danger at some point.

I admit I generally enjoy psychological thrillers, and I really liked the initial premise. Many will find this to be a decent thriller and should definitely check it out. But I really didn’t care about any of the characters (particularly Louisa), and felt the twists to be a bit contrived. And I wasn’t all that broken up when certain things happened to certain people! I kept looking at the percentage of completion, wanting to just get it over with. So, for me, it is only three stars (and I am a notoriously easy grader). Thanks to Avon books and NetGalley for the early copy of this June 2019 release in exchange for my honest review.