The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

'From the author of the critically acclaimed What Alice Forgot comes a breakout new novel about the secrets husbands and wives keep from each other.

My Darling Cecilia
If you're reading this, then I've died . . .

Imagine your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret - something so terrible it would destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others too. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive . . .


Cecilia Fitzpatrick achieved it all - she's an incredibly successful business woman, a pillar of her small community and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia - or each other - but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband's devastating secret.'




During the book we follow the lives of three different women, to begin with I found this a bit tricky to keep up with as there are many characters introduced within a short period of time. Make sure you don’t give up though as it quickly slips into place and once it does, you will not be able to put it down.

Cecilia Fitzpatrick and her husband have been married many years and she thinks she knows him inside and out. When she is in the loft one day looking for part of the Berlin wall (for her daughter) she discovers something she is not sure she was meant to find. It is a letter that is addressed to her in case of her husband’s death. Cecilia knows she shouldn’t open the letter as her husband is very much alive, but she just cannot keep it to herself. But what could it possibly say? Why is it only to be opened in the event of his death?

We are left with this to ponder over while we meet Tess, she has a son with her husband, he however has fallen in love with someone else. She cannot take it and flies to stay with her mum in Sydney, along with her son.

Finally we meet Rachel, she is a school secretary and is still grieving over the loss of her daughter many years before. She now puts all her energy into her grandson, her son and daughter in law have been offered a job in America and are planning on taking him with them. This is something that Rachel feels would kill her as she would have nothing left.

Liane Moriarty is an author who I had not come across before, however on the strength of this book I would read others. The story is written very well and during the novel we begin to find out about Janie Rachel’s daughter, this is the back story that is going on. I found I enjoyed this and found it necessary to understand some of the actions Rachel takes.


The Husband’s Secret is a story that takes you on a journey to question how well you know people that you care about and friends. You are also left with the realisation of the consequences keeping secrets can have. I would recommend this book to everyone I know, it took me on a journey with the characters and my feeling for them regularly changed. I found it a quick read but one that will last with you a long time. I loved the ‘who done it’ aspect of the book and the twists and turns in the plot.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me this copy to review.