The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty – A Book Club Discussion

 

 

When you begin reading this book, you feel there are three major players:   Cecilia Fitzpatrick, Tess Curtis, and Rachel Crowley.  As the first few chapters unfold, you jump from one woman’s story to the next, each different but deeply intersecting at the same time.  I had heard that some thought this story moved slowly in the beginning.  For me, jumping from one character to another at the end of each chapter kept it moving quickly.  The stories all ballooned at the same time and soon, the players expand to encompass others. 

• For Cecilia, there is her husband John-Paul and their three daughters Isabel, Ester (who’s pet project at the moment is learning as much about the Berlin Wall as possible), and Polly.
• For Tess, there is her husband Will, their son Liam, her sister-like cousin Felicity, and her mother, Lucy O’Leary. 
• For Rachel, there is her daughter Janie, her son Rob, his wife Lauren, and their son Jacob. 
• Let’s not forget Conner Whitby.  His world intersects with all three of them.

In the beginning chapter while John-Paul is away on business, Cecilia finds a sealed envelope, quite by accident, with the words “To be opened only in the event of my death” on the outside cover.  When she asks John-Paul about it, he seems a little distracted and quickly asks if she’s read it.  When she admits that she hasn’t, he claims he wrote it the night their first daughter was born, claims it’s quite sappy as he was drunk when he wrote it and asks her not to read it.  Cecilia agrees.  However, as night turns into day, the contents of the letter begin to torment Cecilia and she makes the decision to read it anyway.   Returning from a Tupperware party she's hosted, she finds John-Paul climbing out of a taxi cab in front of their home, having cut his trip noticeably short.

Meanwhile, Tess finds herself in a meeting with her business partners Will, her husband, and Felicity her lifelong best friend and obese cousin recently turned supermodel.  Instead of talking business, Will and Felicity confess to Tess that they have fallen in love.  Although they haven’t yet slept together, they plan to and want her blessing.  After throwing cold coffee at them both, Tess receives a call from her mother Lucy informing her that she has broken her ankle.  Using this as an means of escape, Tess immediately books a flight to Sydney (this book is based in Australia), haphazardly packs a couple of bags and takes her son Liam with her.

Which brings us to Rachael.  While both Cecilia and Tess are in their forties, Rachael is in her seventies.  She lost her husband Ed some time ago, as well as her daughter Janie who was murdered at the age of seventeen.  She works as the school administrator at St. Agnes elementary three days a week and watches her two year old grandson Jacob the other two days.  Still in the throes of grief over losing her daughter (the killer has never been caught), she learns that Rob and Lauren are moving to New York for a couple of years for business and will be taking Jacob away from her.  Though she and Rob are not close, mostly due to her own actions, taking Jacob away will be her undoing.  There will be nothing left for her.

Midway through the book when Cecilia reads the letter, she finds that John-Paul’s words are something that she can never take back, never unread.  Her innocence is shattered as she becomes an unwitting accomplice to his past.  As the cover of the book states, “The trouble with the truth is that it can change everything.”  

Things begin then to splinter for all of them.  The shocking confession John Paul’s letter avows begins to fragment the Fitzpatrick’s marriage.  If not for the girls, there would be nothing to hold them together. Tess leaves her husband and cousin to have their affair, wanting them to get it out of the way so she can return to her normal, comfortable life.  However, she doesn’t expect to run into her ex-boyfriend Conner Whitby, nor does she suspect the depth of the connection that awaits her.  And Rachel, she has decided that Conner Whitby is guility.  Guilty of killing Janie and there is nothing that will stand in the way of her bringing him to justice. 

As the lives of these women and their families cross paths, the story takes on a life of its own.  I found it to be an interesting read filled with grief, anger, betrayal, and yet love was the basis that held it all together.  It didn’t end as I expected it to, but then, nothing never really does.  The Epilogue was eye-opening in itself and made me think of the twists and turns of my life and had I made one decision differently, where I might be today.  It only takes one action, one decision, or one moment to change everything.

I hope that you enjoyed this read.  Please post a comment and let me know your thoughts on this book!   Thank you!