The Second Husband

by Louise Candlish

His voice was sweet, intimate, demanding: 'There is a way out of this, you know. You could agree to marry me.' When Davis Calder moves in next door to Kate Easton and her seventeen-year-old daughter Roxy, neither has any idea of the devastation about to be unleashed. With Kate struggling to accept her daughter's independence and Roxy getting more secretive by the day, there's enough family tension to go around already. Before they know it, glamorous, charismatic Davis is the only one who seems able to keep the peace. Until, one wedding day later, Kate makes a discovery that blows the whole family apart ...

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Suspense, Contemporary, Romance, Chick Lit

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Hello and welcome to my page... You may already know my domestic noir thrillers or perhaps you're curious and not sure which to try first - either way, you're in the right place!

My latest is OUR HOLIDAY, a Sunday Times bestseller, WHSmith Richard & Judy Book Club pick and Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2025 nominee. It features my favourite ever love-to-hate characters Perry and Charlotte, second home owners in the idyllic English beach resort of Pine Ridge. It's now in development for the screen - I'll share news on that as soon as I can.

Next up is A NEIGHBOUR'S GUIDE TO MURDER, published in July 2025 (UK) and 2026 (US), available to pre-order now.

Last year I celebrated my 20th anniversary as an author with the news of two prestigious awards for my 90s-set thriller THE ONLY SUSPECT: the Capital Crime Fingerprint Award for Thriller of the Year and the Ned Kelly Award for Best International Crime Fiction. Stay tuned for TV news on that one too - it will be the next of mine to hit our screens!

OUR HOUSE is the one you may know me for as it's now a major four-part ITV drama starring Martin Compston and Tuppence Middleton (watch the full series free on ITVX). This is the novel that turned my career around, winning the 2019 British Book Awards Book of the Year - Crime & Thriller and shortlisted for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award, the Capital Crime Amazon Publishing Best Crime Novel of the Year Award​, and the Audible Sounds of Crime Award. It was also longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and the Specsavers National Book Awards. A Waterstones Thriller of the Month, it recently received a Nielsen Bestseller Silver Award for 250,000 copies sold.

A bit about me: I live in a South London neighbourhood not unlike the one in my books, with my husband, daughter and a fox-red Labrador called Bertie who is the apple of my eye. Books, TV and long walks are my passions - and drinking wine in the sun with family and friends. Authors I love include Tom Wolfe, Patricia Highsmith, Barbara Vine, Agatha Christie and Evelyn Waugh. My favourite book is Madame Bovary.

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Reviews

[AE · Rating 1 out of 5]

Do NOT read this book

I have read several novels by this author and this was the absolute worst. The others haven’t been works of literary genius but they’ve been enjoyable and satisfying reads. But this... this was awful. Where to begin! The characters were ridiculous (impossible to believe - entirely one-dimensional and boring), the plot was 100% predictable, and the ending! The ending was atrocious. This whole book was a mess and I am really annoyed that I read this and even more annoyed that I paid for it. So please don’t! Save your time (and money) for a different novel! Something actually worth-reading.

[Teotakuu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I saw the plot premise almost straight away. The disturbing thing to me was that I wanted there to be a punishment of some kind but, while immoral, no illegality was perpetrated. I have become a judgemental old woman

[Amanda white · Rating 3 out of 5]

SO........first off, I am NOT a fan of British fiction. I grabbed this one off a website with a decent price because it was by the author of the swimming pool and our house (which I haven’t yet read but I psyched myself up over the synopsis of both) I didn’t realize this was a British author until now. I’ve read a dozen or more British books and I’ve never found a connection with a single character. I’m guessing it’s the writing styles and the different cultures.
Kudos to Ms Candlish first off for doing what she set out to do I think. I’ve never in my entire life read a book that I could feel my blood pressure go up while reading it almost from the beginning like this one did. I literally loathed every character in this book. In fact the only one I feel like had an ounce of sense was the ex husband and his current wife of which he left the main character for before the book began.
I just couldn’t make up my mind if I wanted to reach in the book and choke the daughter who was an ungrateful, bratty bitch who felt entitled to her emotions like they were far more superior to anyone else in the book OR smack the daylights out of the mother who instead of getting the daughter in check just kept deliberating how to go about appeasing her so they could still be friends all the while weighing in her head if she was a good mother.
Other than these emotions o felt nothing for anything else in the book. I’m not sure how attached I can be to a character who just had a crush then happened upon a sexcapade 5 days out of 1 week then decided she was in love enough to marry someone she’s only known a mere couple months. The only emotions I felt at all other than anger was the last 5 pages where I tried to think from a Mother’s prospective and had a twinge of sorry for the mother but even that couldn’t make me fee satisfied with the ending. Ugh.

[DubaiReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Predictable.

This was well enough written but rather predictable. One twist, about half way through, prevented the book from being totally mundane, but in spite of a dash overseas and some rather irritating conversation, the ending just resolved itself, with no help from the characters. It didn't help that the narrator of my audiobook version had a rather patronising, super-sweet voice.

Kate Easton has been divorced from her first husband, Alistair, for ten years, when he announces that his child support will have to be reduced and suggests that she split the flat and take in a lodger. Reluctantly she agrees and Davis Calder takes the room. He is peripatetic teacher, coaching teenagers through their exams, and offers to help Kate's daughter Roxy in her application for Cambridge University.
In spite of Kate's resolution to steer clear of men and concentrate on Roxy and her nine-year old brother, Kate is undeniably drawn to him.

Because I listened to the audio version, I fortunately missed the tag line spoiler, that was apparently on the book. But in spite of this, it wasn't too much of a surprise as there were plenty of suggestive hints in the narrative. The resolution of the resulting problem was totally ineffective as the issue, predictably, resolved itself, much as I had expected.

Not a bad listen to keep me awake on a couple of five-hour drives, but not something that makes me want to dash out and buy another book by the same author.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Told in the first person by Kate, a divorced woman in her late thirties who has a teenage daughter, Roxy, and a younger son Matthew. We meet Kate as she’s considering who to accept as a lodger, while also becoming increasingly frustrated at Roxy.

The overall theme of the book is about the strength of parental relationships. Kate is far from perfect and gets into power struggles with both Alistair and Roxy which seem unnecessary and frustrating. She speaks without thinking, and doesn't seem to get how to relate to a teenager. But she adores both her children and would do anything to see them happy.

At the midway point the inevitable is revealed, and there's something of a sordid element. But I kept reading, and Kate’s character develops as her priorities become clearer, and despite everything her loyalty and love as a mother trump everything.

The ending is a bit abrupt after a lengthy climax. Perhaps it’s inevitable that everything comes full circle; yet Kate has moved on, finding that some of the people closest to her are much more complex - and in some cases nicer - than she had previously realised.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...

[Anni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a disappointing read from one of my favourite authors. There was none of her usual mix of narrative tension or suspense which made the story difficult to engage with, despite the family drama.
However, it is worth reading for the evocative description of the French setting - especially if you have visited that area of La Rochelle.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compelling story of a fractured family - at heart the problem all parents probably have of accepting their children have become adults. This one made more complicated by a divorce and both mother and daughter being attracted to the same man. It went on a bit, especially at the end but I enjoyed listening to it and wanted to know what would happen. The resolution is plausible and the happy ending flawed, as it would have to be.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate giving books bad reviews, but this one feels like I honestly wasted my time reading it. Entirely predictable pretty much from the outset, I persevered with the book as I was sure it couldn’t be this obvious & there must have been an unexpected twist coming at the end, but alas it’s exactly as predicted.

[Catherine Stead · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the plot predictable and felt the ending was rushed. A disappointing read.

[Chloë Dowman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good story, gripping from the start.....easy to read, easy to finish. Not completely believable but that's not necessarily a bad thing. My second book by Candlish and I'll definitely read some more.

[Valerie Wicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s hard to explain why I enjoyed this book so much as it certainly didn’t have the same depth and twisting storylines as some of the author’s other books.

I think it was that having been presented with such an unlikeable bunch of characters I wanted to see them all slapped down and put in their places.

Not the ending I was anticipating but a surprisingly enjoyable read.

[Plum-crazy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've mixed feelings about this book. It kept me hooked enough to keep reading but boy did I find the characters annoying & unlikeable.

There's no way I can say what I want without spoilers, so here goes...

The story starts with divorcee Kate being forced to let part of the home she shares with kids Roxy & Matt. Enter new lodger Davis &, hey presto, love...or lust...is in the air. Kate falls head over heels but a threat to her happiness is much closer to home than she could have ever expected.

From the off, well from the "little blue dress" episode at least, it seemed obvious to me what tack this story was going to take...& guess what? Yup, I was right...Davis & Roxy are having a romance...or sneaky affair depending on whose side you're looking at it from (though from whichever side Davis doesn't come out of it too well). The shock that I should have felt on Kate's behalf at discovering the affair was sadly lacking. I might have been more sympathetic if she hadn't let Roxy walk all over her. And what a little cow Roxy was! I have to admit that Roxy's barbed comment to her mother of "You're jealous because he prefers me, because I'm young & you're dried up & old!" had me outraged & on this one occasion feeling so sorry for Kate. Yet Kate seems to just make excuses for her - a good smack was what she needed! (yes, I'm of that generation).

So when their little dalliance is discovered, Roxy & Davis flee the country with Kate in hot pursuit. Personally I think she should have been glad to see that back of her but in Kate's eyes all fault seemed to be with Davis, Kate apparently being too young to appreciate the fact that her mother would be hurt;
"...she hadn't thought about my feelings at all. Or at least hadn't thought enough about them. And that was the difference, wasn't it between a girl & a woman, a child & a grown-up? One understands that others feel as intensely as she does...."...blah blah blah
....take off those rose-tinted glasses woman! She's 17 for gawd's sake, old enough to know that it's not the done thing to sleep with your mother's husband. However, if I was to play devil's advocate for a second, Roxy did feel that Kate "stole" her man. Even so....

The episode in France, while quite evocatively depicted, dragged on a bit with the lighthouse incident obviously there to allow the reader to assume hope that one of the characters is going to get shoved off the top! Or was that just me....

And so to the ending. Are we to conclude that family life is to be resumed as normal? Hmmm...Kate's a more forgiving woman than me ;o)

A good enough read but predictable in the way the story panned out & I'd've liked to end on a surprise twist rather than the rather twee conclusion that I got.

[Mary Pimbblet · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was alright, but the plot of this was too awful to contemplate. It made absolutely no sense at all, and the best word I can find to describe it is yucky. Not a pleasant read.

[Beachbubblesbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of Louise Candlish's earlier works, I picked this up without reading the synopsis based on the writer and the cover which portrays a thriller-esque vibe. I was completely wrong in that assumption and instead encountered a story of family and the strife encountered as relationships break down and teenage angst ramps up to a new high. Though not my usual reading subject matter, there was another level of depth to this novel, touching upon an issue which has been a recipient of much attention over recent years, bringing relevance to a new readership. The lead character of Kate had me shouting in frustration as her oblivion to the world around her and, whilst I did guess relatively early on where the narrative would lead, I nonetheless was invested in finding out the story's ultimate resolution and was given some food for thought once the final pages were closed.

[XXVII · Rating 1 out of 5]

couldn't finish the book. one word, horrible!

[Little Miss Fab 1 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Off to a slow start, gross, meh. Go ahead, skip this book.

[Helena Wildsmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was utterly gripped by this book and really struggled to put it down. Yes, the twist was quite predictable but it didn't make it any less exciting.

[Emily Burke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Predictable.

[Cheryl Houghton · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay, although I saw the plot twist coming a mile off. The ending didn’t leave me feeling satisfied either. Kept me fairly gripped until then.

[Tanya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read other books from this author and loved them but thos was just not the story for me.

[tinalouisereadsbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kate lives with her two children Roxy and Matt. When Davis Calder moves in next door things Kate's life is going to change in an unexpected way.

This book had an interesting premise but one that has been probably many times. I found the story at first just a family saga, mainly mother and teenage daughter relationship. Then the story progresses as Davis is thrown into the mix. From this point I was invested and wanted to see what was going to happen.

I enjoyed the book but I felt it needed something more. I was expecting a twist at the end which would have the given the story a bit of a wow factor but I was left slightly disappointed.

This is the first book for me by this author. I may read more in the future as I didn't dislike the book, just was expecting something a bit more.

[Jennifer Carroll · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the second Louise Candlish book I've tried to read, and as like with the other one...this sucked. Her writing just sucks! So this is a DNF after failing to capture my attention within the first 40 pages.

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poignant

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I nearly DNF this multiple times and I'm not sure why I didn't.
No likeable characters, badly written.
A repulsive plot that was obvious from the beginning.
Don't waste your time.

[Emily Martinez]

I had a bad feeling at the start... and I was completely right

[Vivien Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!!! What a fantastic book. Really engrossed by it from start to finish. Wonderful author.

[Helen Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started reading this then realized that I'd already read it so didn't continue with it but it is a good book

[Papergirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

In true Louise Candlish fashion, lack of character development, poor and predictable plot, and even she seems to get bored towards the end as she sprints to the finish line after such a long, drawn out set up. Where there should be a climax is actually an anti-climax. On the plus side, there are a few giggles and this is the kind of book to read if you don't want to have to put any thought into it, or wish to fall asleep quickly. Overall, disappointing and torturous.

[Kirstie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I want to love this author - the book covers draw me in but the stories just fall a bit flat

As other reviewers have said the characters in this are so unlikeable. Literally all of them are vile.

Pretty predictable

[Amanda Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didnt end up finishing the book, got bored half way through.