HAPPY WIFE

When her husband goes missing, Nora challenges the balance of power in her wealthy community to find out what happened.

It’s not easy being a younger second wife. As she surveys the glamorous party she’s throwing for her husband Will’s 46th birthday, 28-year-old Nora Somerset knows that to the ultrawealthy society of Winter Park, Florida, she’s an interloper. But after a whirlwind courtship with “Hot Mean Lawyer” Will, Nora seems to have hooked the white whale—and she’s head-over-heels in love with him. Never mind that his first wife cuts her dead every time they meet; never mind that his law partner has pressured her to sign an agreement in case the marriage doesn’t work out; and never mind that Will, a workaholic, rarely comes home for dinner and shuts her out of his business life. She finds good friends in free-spirited millionaire neighbor Este, her husband, Beau, and their friend Marcus. Despite some marital struggles between Nora and Will, the party celebrates not only Will’s birthday but also their recent recommitment to each other. So when Will gets a phone call just before they go upstairs at the end of the evening, Nora isn’t worried. And when she wakes up alone the next day, she figures he’s at work. But when two days go by without any sign from Will, it becomes clear that something has happened: Her husband is missing and—after his shirt is discovered in the lake behind their house—is presumed dead. The novel begins on the night of the party and then tells the story both forward from the couple’s first meet-cute and forward from Will’s disappearance. Nora is a feisty, self-aware, and appealing character, but as thrillers go, this is pretty tame. The focus on the wealthy community of Winter Park necessarily limits the possible suspects, so there isn’t much suspense baked in. The fascination lies in the way Lavender and Shores pull back the curtain on this enclave of affluence, and how Nora is both repelled and seduced by this world.

A story rooted more deeply in setting than in suspense.