Book Club Questions for My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney

Book club questions for My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney take a closer look at this bold, fast paced, and truly unpredictable thriller. There will be spoilers so for more context about the book, check out our spoiler-free review first.

What an intricate web of deception and intrigue that Alice Feeney has woven! With short chapters (yes!) and mind bending reveals that keep you riveted from start to finish, Feeney has penned yet another unputdownable mystery.

One of the things we love so much about Laura Dave’s writing is that her books always have very strong themes of love and loyalty. We see people make bad choices yet at the core of their motivation we always see love.

This is the sequel we didn’t know we needed but now we can’t imagine not having it.

Book Club Questions

1. What was your gut reaction to the opening scene (Eden’s run and the key that won’t fit)? How did that moment set the tone for the rest of the book for you?
2. Spyglass feels like a character in its own right. What specific details about the house made it feel alive or threatening? How would the story change if it were set somewhere less isolated?
3. Both Eden and Birdy are forced into identities they didn’t choose. How does each woman respond to that loss (or reshaping) of self, and which reaction felt more believable to you?
4. The clinic that claims to predict death plays a big role in Birdy’s storyline. What ethical questions did that premise raise for you? Would you want to know your date of death?
5. How does Feeney use dual timelines to manipulate what you trust as a reader? Were there moments where the structure actively misled you, or did it deepen your sympathy for characters?
6. Who do you think is the most reliable narrator — Eden, Birdy, or another character? Give examples of lines or scenes that convinced you of their reliability or unreliability.
7. Secrets drive almost every major turn in the plot. Which secret surprised you most, and which one felt like it should have been shared earlier by a character?
8. Harrison’s choices are central to the core mystery. How do you interpret his actions and loyalties? Did your opinion of him change as the story progressed?
9. Revenge and justice are threaded through the narrative. Where do you see sympathy for vengeance, and where does it cross into something less justified?
10. The novel leans into implausible beats at times. Did you feel the book asked you to suspend disbelief in a way that enhanced the thriller, or did those moments pull you out of the story?
11. Discuss the theme of love in its different forms in the novel: romantic, familial, self-love, and possessive attachment. How does Feeney complicate our usual ideas about “love”?
12. How did the seaside setting (Hope Falls, the cliffs, the sea) influence the mood and symbolism of the story? Were there recurring images that stuck with you?
13. Which supporting character surprised you the most (in motive or revelation)? How did that surprise change your reading of earlier scenes?
14. If you were in Eden’s shoes the night she returned to Spyglass, what would you have done differently — immediately, and later in the story? Be specific.
15. Feeney is known for big twists. Did you feel the final revelations were earned by the text, or were they dependent on authorly sleight-of-hand? Which clues did you miss and which did you spot?
16. The novel asks tough questions about memory, identity, and the stories we tell ourselves. After finishing, did you sympathize more with the person who preserves a lie or the person who exposes it?
17. How does the book handle grief and regret? Pick one scene that you think best illustrates how a character carries their past.
18. If you could change one plot choice (for example, a character’s decision or a withheld fact), what would it be and why? How would that alteration affect the book’s thematic core?
19. Talk about pacing and atmosphere: Were there moments when the plot dragged or flew for you? How did the shifts in tempo affect your emotional investment?
20. Without spoiling for future readers, what would you say is the single most important question this novel asks about human nature — and how would you answer it?

Additional Recommendations

Hope you enjoyed the book club questions for My Husband’s Wife. Here are some more recommendations, along with links to book club questions.

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Wild Dark Shore is a book our team read in one sitting. You will not be able to put it down. It will broke you wide open and heal you. It showed us grief, love, compassion, and all the human things we feel but sometimes never voice.

Here’s the synopsis –

A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.

Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again.

But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late―and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.

A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us disappears.

Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino

This is a wonderful dark comedy with a flawed heroine you root for from the very beginning. Funny, tender and dark. For any fans of Samantha Downing. We look forward to her next book.

Here’s the synopsis –

Eighteen months and 11 lost bidding wars into house-hunting in the overheated Washington, DC suburbs, 37-year-old publicist Margo Miyake gets a tip about the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, slated to come up for sale in one month. Desperate to escape the cramped apartment she shares with her husband Ian ― and in turn, get their marriage, plan to have a baby, and whole life back on track ― Margo becomes obsessed with buying the house before it’s publicly listed and the masses descend (with unbeatable, all-cash offers in hand).

A little stalking? Harmless. A bit of trespassing? Necessary. As Margo infiltrates the homeowners’ lives, her tactics grow increasingly unhinged―but just when she thinks she’s won them over, she hits a snag in her plan. Undeterred, Margo will prove again and again that there’s no boundary she won’t cross to seize the dream life she’s been chasing. The most unsettling part? You’ll root for her, even as you gasp in disbelief.

Dark, biting, and laugh-out-loud funny, Best Offer Wins is a propulsive debut and a razor-sharp exploration of class, ambition, and the modern housing crisis.