The Second Wife

A twisty new thriller from the acclaimed author of The House Swap. After the death of his first wife, Alex has been given a second lease on life with Natalie, to whom he is newly married. Living in Brighton with Alex's thirteen-year-old daughter, Jade, the couple seem to be made for one another. But their idyllic domestic calm is soon shattered when Alex returns home one night to find that Jade and Natalie have narrowly escaped from a devastating house fire. Hospitalized and traumatized, Jade insists that she saw a man in their house on that fateful night, though Natalie resolutely disagrees. In the wake of the fire, Natalie finally confides in Alex about a past that she has always kept hidden: eighteen years ago, she testified as a witness in a murder trial involving her reckless and defiant sister, Sadie, whose infatuation with a local gang leader, Kas, led her badly astray. Natalie was placed under witness protection and given a new identity; she has worked hard to build another life, but now it seems the past is catching up to her. And as Alex struggles to understand what really happened between the two sisters years ago, he is forced to recognize that his wife's actions are now putting his family at risk--and that perhaps he is more deeply involved than he ever realized.