The Perfect Wife Audiobook By JP Delaney cover art

The Perfect Wife

A Novel

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The Perfect Wife

By: JP Delaney
Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Graham Halstead, Euan Morton, JP Delaney
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About this listen

The perfect life. The perfect love. The perfect lie. From the best-selling author of The Girl Before comes a gripping new psychological thriller....

“Mind-bending...Delaney takes domestic suspense beyond its comfort zone.” (The New York Times Book Review)

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the New York Public Library A Cosmopolitan New Must-Read

Abbie awakens in a daze with no memory of who she is or how she landed in this unsettling condition. The man by her side claims to be her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative start-ups. He tells Abbie that she is a gifted artist, an avid surfer, a loving mother to their young son, and the perfect wife. He says she had a terrible accident five years ago and that, through a huge technological breakthrough, she has been brought back from the abyss.

She is a miracle of science.

But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins to question her husband’s motives - and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together forever? And what really happened to her, half a decade ago?

Beware the man who calls you...

The Perfect Wife.

Praise for The Perfect Wife

"A twisty, completely original psychological thriller that grabs you from the start and doesn’t let go until the very end." (Karen Cleveland, New York Times best-selling author of Need to Know)

"Seriously, amazingly, awesomely brilliant...speculative fiction mixed up with a mind-bendingly twisty psycho thriller! I devoured it." (C. J. Tudor, author of The Chalk Man)

"A tour de force...The Perfect Wife is a chilling and uniquely disturbing twenty-first-century twist on the unreliable narrator that makes for a compulsive and deeply thought-provoking book. It asks troubling questions about selfhood and ‘souls’ and what makes us human, and plays them out in a compelling psychological thriller." (Cara Hunter, author of Close to Home)

©2019 JP Delaney (P)2019 Random House Audio
Fiction Genetic Engineering Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Science Fiction Suspense Thriller & Suspense Marriage Genetics Adventure Thriller Exciting

Critic reviews

"The Perfect Wife blew my mind! What a wonderful and unique thriller. I haven’t been able to put it down since it arrived, and now that I’ve finished I can’t stop thinking about it! Those last lines...wow! JP Delaney has outdone himself with his latest dynamic, razor-sharp, and thought-provoking thriller. The Perfect Wife is a cutting-edge suspense novel unlike any you’ve read before.... A must-read!" (Mary Kubica, New York Times best-selling author of The Good Girl)

"Readers...will be rewarded with a fresh take on the domestic thriller that will leave them satisfied." (Booklist)

"Puts - almost perfectly - a high-tech spin on the stories of Frankenstein and Pygmalion with a tinge of the Stepford wives.... The intriguing plot leads to a chilling and surprising finale that perfectly caps The Perfect Wife." (Associated Press)

"Artificial intelligence might seem like a risky plot device, and the premise of the novel itself is tricky at best, but Delaney pulls it off brilliantly, with an intoxicating knack for suspense. This is the kind of novel ugly words like ‘unputdownable’ were invented for. With the tale of Abbie, Delaney delivers a sharp reflection on misogyny.... With every thriller must come a dizzying plot twist and an unforeseeable denouement, as is definitely the case here.... Everything about The Perfect Wife feels earned and satisfying.... This journey is a captivating, deeply engrossing one." (The Independent)

What listeners say about The Perfect Wife

Highly rated for:

Unpredictable Twists Gripping Storyline Excellent Narration Unique Premise Engaging Mystery
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Outstanding.

gives a vivid compassionate window into autism. the character development and plot development are absolutely wonderful. nothing is predictable in this book except what you're supposed to think is going to happen. And then it doesn't. You will not be disappointed.

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25 people found this helpful

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Worth a listen but still a little disappointed

I was so excited for a new JP Delaney novel after The Girl Before. I’m not interested in tech at all but he seamlessly wove that part of the story into a gripping story about love, mystery, and betrayal.
So when The Perfect Wife started out as more of a sci-fi novel I decided to give it a chance since this was an author I’d raved about many times before.
Unfortunately, the story just never took off for me. I was waiting for a hook that didn’t come until the last 20 minutes of the book. Things didn’t start revving up until I was 85% done and as a result I found myself getting bored and losing focus fairly often while listening to this one.
The overall concept was interesting and knowing that something unexpected was coming definitely kept me interested but to be honest, I only kept listening because the book details told me there would be a twist.
All and all, he can do better and I hope he does next time. This hasn’t put me off his books and I’m excited to see what he comes up with in the future.

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Good premise but not well executed

I liked this idea. But I feel like the author was always fighting its sci fi elements instead of truly exploring them and embracing them. The use of second person was weird and distracting. At times the book felt like it was more about autism and the merits of various therapies than it was about the true storyline and I think the authors own autistic son made it hard for him to root out unnecessary passages relating to the son’s autism in the book. And honestly it was just slow. I know it was a psychological story rather than a thriller but it just didn’t keep me interested enough to care about the characters. They were all so flawed I didn’t really care what happened to them. I only finished it because I try and finish most books I start.

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Loved it!

I truly enjoyed this book! I am NOT a sci-fi person at all, and if you are hesitating to read this because you are not either - please read it! It is a mystery suspense book above all else. It has been a while since I have listened to a book that I really loved. I did love this one! Narration was SPOT ON!

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Great story with innovative POV narrators

I began this books a little unenthusiastically, but soon warmed to it. I enjoyed the POV changes and really enjoyed the ending.

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Amazing

This book was amazing for involving AI and it was a thriller.

Great book for thrill seekers and computer Engineers

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Great story

I recently listened to this a second time and it still kept me at the edge of my seat .

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Incredible book! Difficult to put down!

I love mysteries and it is hard to surprise me, but I was shocked and delighted! Really makes you think about technology in a different way. Abby was an amazing character as was Tim! Ordering another book by JP Delaney
Loved the different “characters” voices!

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a suprise listen

this was not at all what i expected. the concept of the book was far reaching and more than I imagined. it was certainly full of suspense and thrills.
although i suppose my disappointment was in the knowledge that i was hearing a robot rather than a human heroine. ..with the full knowledge she would be destroyed in the end.
i suppose it left me wanting a "lived happily ever after " that left me wanting a miracle into human transformation.
im a romantic...and it took that away.

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Totally unexpected and amazing!

I loved this book!! Not at all what I expected and although I thought some situations were predictable, there were several plot twists that totally surprised me. As a mom of a son on the spectrum I had so much empathy for some of the characters and the AI focus was fascinating. Highly recommend if you like suspense with a different approach.

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