Jim Beckett was everything she’d ever dreamed of. But two years after Tess married the decorated cop and bore his child, she helped put him behind bars for savagely murdering ten women. Even locked up in a maximum security prison, he vowed he would come after her and make her pay. Now the cunning killer has escaped-and the most dangerous game of all begins…
After a lifetime of fear, Tess will do something she’s never done before. She’s going to learn to protect her daughter and fight back, with the help of a burned-out ex-marine. As the largest manhunt four states have ever seen mobilizes to catch Beckett, the clock winds down to the terrifying reunion between husband and wife. And Tess knows that this time, her only choices are to kill-or be killed.
The Perfect Husband is one of Lisa Gardner’s books, showing a fast-paced thriller with lots of action, violence and a mounting body count. Personally, I am a bit divided about this book. There were elements in the story I really enjoyed, such as the premise of hiring an ex-marine to pro-actively protect yourself against your abusive husband who is coming to kill you. However, I found some things just too hard to swallow; Jim Beckett, the young cop-turned-serial-killer has almost superhuman powers, outwitting authorities at every opportunity; J. T. Dillon, the posterboy of testosterone, drowning his sorrows and demons in binges of tequila; and Tess, on one hand weak, helpless and abused, miraculously learns self-defence and develops a muscled body in little more than a couple of weeks. Being a stickler for such details, these things annoyed me, even though I reminded myself over and over again that this was fiction, and to be taken for its entertainment value alone. But alas, it still bugs me!
This author is not afraid to discuss some very dark elements in her stories, and this one is no exception. Incest, abuse, sexual perversion, betrayal ~ all of her characters are flawed in some way or another, overcoming personal tragedies which play sidelines in the larger story and add depth to their personalities. There are plenty of twists and turns, albeit very little mystery (since there is never any doubt as to who the killer is), and lots of action and violence.
If you are a fan of Lisa Gardner's writing, the odds are that you will enjoy this one as well, which was full of suspense from start to finish. This is a truly gripping and very intense novel and one that will have you turning the pages quite quickly the closer you get to the end.
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