Sometimes the bonds of matrimony are bonds of love that unite two people in a common purpose. Sometimes those bonds are far more sinister. Sometimes they are shackles. Here are five thrillers in which conjugal bliss is anything but. The married women here are powerless, restless, hungry. They want to break free. They crave connection and equality. After all, a marriage is never as it seems, is it? One never really knows what’s going on behind closed doors. A marriage can be mayhem. It can even be murder.
“The Last Housewife has the hallmarks of a great crime story: a flawed hero seeking redemption plunges into a perilous world, doggedly pursuing lead after lead down a path from which she knows she might not return.”
The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead
“It turns out that loaded guns, black-out-level drunkenness, drugs, pent-up sexual desire, and teenage hormones are quite the cocktail.”
The Hunting Wives by May Cobb
“The Husbands is a novel that begs to be remembered for its insight. It capitalizes on the workload of the modern woman and the struggle of maintaining the work-life balance that many of us feel on a daily basis.”
The Husbands by Chandler Baker
“The Birdcatcher examines ways women attempt to have autonomy in a world where men dismiss them as lesser beings.”
The Birdcatcher by Gayl Jones
“Appearances can’t be trusted in the gated Stepford-like community — the ‘coddled bubble’ — of Thornfield Estates, where twenty-something Jane Bell works as a dog-walker for the well-heeled housewives on the Neighborhood Beautification Committee, or NBC.”
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
Southern Review of Books 