Publication: 8th August 2019 – Quercus
“There’s something I have to explain, my love,” he says, taking your hand in his. “That wasn’t a dream. It was an upload.”
Abbie wakes in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. The man by her side explains that he’s her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative startups. He tells Abbie she’s a gifted artist, a doting mother to their young son, and the perfect wife.
Five years ago, she suffered a terrible accident. Her return from the abyss is a miracle of science, a breakthrough in artificial intelligence that has taken him half a decade to achieve.
But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband’s motives – and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together for ever? And what really happened to her, half a decade ago?
A gripping psychological thriller, perfect for fans of The Woman in the Window and The Wife Between Us.
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After devouring The Girl Before and Believe Me, JP Delaney is back with another brilliant and twisty novel that literally kept me on the edge of my seat. Weird and dark is one way to describe it, brilliant is another, utterly captivating is another one.
JP Delaney mixes artificial intelligence and obsession to create a mystery thriller set in Silicon Valley, the world’s capital of technology. Abbie Cullen is a beautiful and smart artist. Tim Scott is the founder of Scott Technologies, an innovative start-up. Tim and Abbie meet, fall in love, get married, and have a child. It’s the perfect love story, right? However, nothing is perfect in their love story and, as the author narrates Abbie and Tim’s romance from the beginning to the present day when Tim’s love leads him to use technology to create the perfect wife, I couldn’t help but wonder: was Abbie and Tim’s marriage as happy and perfect as it seemed?
Tim is considered a genius, driven and brilliant. Like all the male protagonists in JP Delaney’s novel, he is also obsessed. He is looking for perfection and, for him, perfection is embodied in Abbie. However, Abbie is a drug addict, a free spirit who doesn’t like to be controlled so Tim uses technology to turn her into the perfect woman, the perfect wife he’s been looking for. What started as a story of grief, great love, and second chances, turned into a psychological thriller about obsession and perfection.
The story is original and thought-provoking, full of intrigue, family drama, and suspense. Some of the story is hard to believe and yet there are themes that rise a few moral and ethical questions about our use of technology, artificial intelligence, data rights, and consent.
For me, THE PERFECT WIFE is JP Delaney’s best novel so far. It’s riveting, twisty and the jaw-dropping ending completely took me by surprise, and now I am already looking forward to the author’s next novel. A must-read not to miss!!!
A huge thank you to Hannah, Ella, and Quercus for providing me with a copy of the novel.
Book After Book 