The Soulmate
The Soulmate
By: Sally Hepworth
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2023]
“It goes to show how dangerous it can be, thinking that you know someone.”
In the acknowledgements, Sally Hepworth says she writes: “funny books about family and murder.”
This fits the other two Hepworth books I read: The Good Sister and The Younger Wife— both of which I thought were really good.
I also thought The Soulmate was really good but it didn’t have quite the same humor.
It was a fast read with a few twists, some more surprising than others. The ending wasn’t as satisfying as I was hoping for, but it was at least more resolved than her other books I’ve read which are a bit open-ended.
As I process the book after finishing, I look back at the slow reveal and see more and more the crumbs of information Hepworth left for us to discover.
In all three of these books, she tackles some bigger topics— The Good Sister has an autistic character, The Younger Wife has three characters with vices- stealing, eating, alcohol, and The Soulmate has its own thing it gives insight to (it’s a spoiler or I’d tell you). How it can affect a person and a marriage.
“The line between normal and not normal had always been so thin for him; sometimes I didn’t know if I was talking to a genius or a madman.”
“He had just enough magic to make him brilliant, but not so much that it sent him mad—unlike his brother.”
What does it take to be soulmates and can they weather a potential murder investigation?
Brief Summary
Gabe and Pippa are soulmates with the picture-perfect family and marriage.
Gabe is the animated and engaged father to their two little girls. He is the hero. The kind of husband you marry where it feels like a dream.
“He’s your classic run toward a burning building kind of guy… When people meet Gabe, they feel safe. Seen.”
They live near a cliff, famously known as The Drop, where people come to commit suicide. Since they moved in, however: “out of the seven souls who have come to the cliff since we moved in, seven have walked away. Gabe has saved them all.”
Until the one he didn’t.
Their lives start to unravel when a woman (Amanda) jumps? falls? is pushed? off the cliff and dies. Because she and Gabe knew each other. She was the wife of Gabe’s former boss (Max) at a job he was fired from. And Gabe withheld that information from the police.
What really happened on that cliff? Why was she there? Is Gabe hiding something? Who is he protecting?
Max is convinced Amanda wouldn’t have jumped. She was not suicidal and she knew how suicide had already taken two of his family members and affected him deeply. He is determined to figure out the truth. He has ‘connections’ and will use whatever means necessary to get it.
Through alternating chapters between Pippa (before and after) and Amanda (before and after) we start putting the pieces together. And things are not what they seem.
Comments
One thing I wasn’t sure whether I liked or not were the Amanda chapters. I think the ‘before’ chapters make sense. It gives us background to who she is and what her marriage to Max is like.
But after her death, in order for the reader to know what’s going on with Max and give us some more ‘insider’ information, Hepworth writes the ‘after’ chapters from Amanda’s POV after death. It’s as if she is floating around and observing the investigation into her death.
Which, in a way, is fitting for the title. But there were a few times where it didn’t make sense. One in particular was her observing and narrating what was happening between a phone conversation between Max and Gabe as if she could see both of them even though they were far away from each other. I guess there aren’t any established rules with the afterlife, so maybe omnipresence is acceptable.
I liked how Pippa has a really good relationship with her family and her parents. It’s a very supportive group and it’s nice to see that stability— that they take care of each other. Plus her parents are the ones that bring the humor in this book.
“According to Mum, ‘All little kids are psychos. It’s a necessary, important phase of growth.’”
I love how much Pippa loves her people, even when it’s hard. She’s a very forgiving person, perhaps to a fault. But it’s a nice difference from the tropes of unstable and paranoid women who hate being a mom.
There were a lot of parts of this book that were relatable in terms of being a parent and the familial reactions so I enjoyed that connection point.
A couple examples: reading their kids the book- The Tiger Who Came to Tea. We bought that book in London to read to our kids and it’s a favorite; the way their girls fight and talk about food; two of the characters took a trip to Bora Bora and a safari in Tanzania, both of which are trips we’ve been considering.
Recommendation
I really enjoy Sally Hepworth’s books. They have good suspense, good characters, some humor, and are pretty clean.
I definitely recommend this book and the other two I already mentioned.
If you’re looking for a thriller that will read quickly, this is it.
New words I Learned:
limerence- the state of being infatuated or obsessed with another person, but typically nonsexually
‘Come on slowcoach’- the British version of slowpoke I guess?
doona- the Australian version of a down comforter
Freddo frogs- an Australian chocolate bar shaped like a frog
been on tenterhooks- another version of ‘on eggshells’; state of tension or anxiety
[Content Advisory: 7 f-words, 8 s-words; suicide; an LGBTQ couple]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
This book releases April, 2023. You can preorder a copy of this book via my affiliate link below.
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