The Love of My Life

Set in London, this heartbreaking thriller from bestseller Walsh (Ghosted) explores the complexity of secrets in marriages. Leo Philber, an obituary writer, has been happily married to 40ish marine ecologist Emma Bigelow for seven years. Emma has been battling lymphoma, and in his effort to cope with her possible death, Leo decides to draft her obituary in secret. To prepare, he begins to research her life, but after discovering secret Facebook messages and inconsistencies about her educational background, he concludes that he truly doesn’t know his wife. In chapters from Emma’s perspective, she reveals that, instead of doing extensive research at the Northumberland beaches, she has been having clandestine meetings related to the traumatizing event that changed her life 20 years earlier. Leo soon learns about the meetings and demands an explanation, but Emma vanishes after dropping off their three-year-old daughter at nursery school. Walsh cleverly integrates twists that not even jaded readers will be able to predict into an initially slow-burning plot that builds to an emotionally raw yet satisfying conclusion. Walsh is a writer to watch. Agent: Allison Hunter, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Mar.)