I snagged this audiobook because it got some buzz at the beginning of the year and because I need something to get me through a days-long cleaning spree. I did not realize until I had literally finished the book that this was a sequel to a previous thriller by Adele Parks. Most of the issues I had with the book are probably solved within the pages of the previous novel.

Two Dead Wives follows DC Clements as she tries to solve the disappearance of Kylie Cunningham, a woman who had two different husbands. She's left behind Daan, who is the major suspect considering he lived in the same apartment that Kylie was kept captive in, and Mark who has permitted Kylie's best friend Fiona to move in to help care for his two sons, Seb and Oli. Meanwhile, a young woman named Staci is recovering from a brain tumor at the home of her father. 

The one lingering issue I have with this book is the major villain of the novel.

Fiona definitely felt underdeveloped to me. Some of that might be due to the fact that I'd inadvertently skipped a book. Perhaps, Fiona's back story and drive are more complicated in the previous book-- she certainly would have had more of a presence. However, as it is, it's seems like a bad stereotype of an unhappy single woman. Fiona wants kids and a husband and so decides to murder her best friend because she has two of each? I want more information about why single motherhood wasn't for her, what wasn't working dating wise, the ways in which she felt casually excluded from Lee's family dynamics.

However, I'm impressed with Adele Parks' ability to write touching family dynamics within the pages of an intense suspense novel, and will probably try out a few of her other books when I'm in the mood.