The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth

 Sally Hepworth falls short of her previous novels in her latest, the Younger Wife. Readers are supposed to find Stephen Aston magnanimous – loving husband, wonderful father, successful cardiac surgeon, blah, blah, blah --  but how so when he already is married and is making plans to divorce his Alzheimer’s-inflicted wife Pam  to marry a woman younger than his adult daughters? Furthermore, his daughters are hanging out with the new younger wife-to-be instead of being up in arms that their father would treat their mother this way.

Everybody has secrets in this story, except seemingly for Stephen with his outward cheating on his sick wife. He takes the new woman to dinner with friends of his and Pam’s. Only one person rings true in that scenario – a friend of Pam’s who stands up for the ailing wife. Stephen also takes the homewrecker to professional functions.

While Stephen seems to be living out in the open with his mistress, readers learn that both of his daughters have serious problems as well as does his mistress -- problems involving rape, kleptomania, and alcoholism

While readers usually have to brace themselves for a mind-blowing ending in Hepworth’s books, this time they will be puzzling over it instead.

Having read all of Hepworth’s novels, I found myself disappointed in this one, hoping it is just a one-off. She is the bestselling author of eight novels including The Good Sister. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her family.