I think I have run out of all of the murder/mystery books on my bookshelves that I have read. I do have a lot of read books that are packed away in boxes, and there’s a good chance there are quite a few more there. But I also know I have liberated several from my collection as I tend to only hang on to books that I think I might want to read again or ones that I want to recommend and lend to others. So for this week, we are again looking at an unread book on my shelf: The Doctor’s Wife by Fiona Sussman. And just for something new, this one is by a New Zealand author 😆.

As I haven’t read it yet, I could make up a lot of shit that is not at all what the book is about. But while that could be fun, it’s not at all useful or the point of these bookshelf spotlight posts, so here’s the blurb instead.

Nothing in Stan Andino’s unremarkable life could prepare him for the day he discovers his wife in the living room, naked except for a black apron, bleaching out a stain in the carpet that only she can see. A CT scan one week later explains the seemingly inexplicable; Carmen Andino has a brain tumour.

As Stan and their teenage sons grapple with the diagnosis and frightening personality changes in their wife and mother, Austin Lamb, close friend and local doctor, does everything possible to assist the family in crisis.

Months later, just when it feels as though life couldn’t possibly get any worse for the Andinos, the body of Austin Lamb’s wife Tibbie is discovered at the bottom of the Browns Bay cliffs.