Book Review - Perfect Wives by Lauren North

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Title: Perfect Wives

Author: Lauren North

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Bookouture

Publication Date: 22nd October 2025

Rating: 5 Stars

Three identical murder confessions. Three perfect liars…

On a sunny Saturday morning, three women from the exclusive gated community of Magnolia Close walk into their local police station.

One by one, they all confess to the murder of their neighbour.

The officer takes statements from Tasha, the overwhelmed mother also struggling under the weight of caring for her parents. Beth, the quiet one, desperate for another baby but unable to fall pregnant. Georgie, the one whose life seems so dazzlingly glamorous… on the surface.

Each woman has a life – a family – that they don’t want to lose.

Each woman has a reason for wanting Johnny dead.

Each woman claims she killed him.

All of them are lying.

Three motives. Three confessions. Three liars. But what would make these women destroy their perfect lives?

An absolutely gripping, addictive, close-knit community psychological thriller that will have you breathlessly flipping the pages! Perfect for fans of Big Little Lies, The Couple Next Door and The Family Upstairs.

Every time I thought I could predict where this story was going, a new curveball is thrown that has be second guessing everything. 

What I was definitely sure of, not least because it says so in the blurb, is that Johnny was murdered.  And the more you hear about Johnny, the less I liked him, but whether he deserved to die is another matter altogether. 

And we have three people all falsely confessing to the murder of Johnny. They are best friends, all live in the same close knit community and all would have wanted to see him dead for various reasons, which aren't always even known to each other. 

This is Lauren North at her very best, writing yet another brilliant story that kept me on my toes throughout.  I loved getting to know the three main women, and their families, while at the same time seeing them spiral after a drunken night in the pub, inadvertently leads to the convoluted situation they now find themselves in. 

I was hooked and couldn't read this book fast enough, being rather impressed at each twist and turn, and never being completely sure who actually committed the murder.  Especially as they all had motive and opportunity. 

And then there is the other element to this book, which has you thinking of all manner of other possible scenarios too. 

This was just so thrilling, and this is an author really getting into her psychological thriller stride, with another excellent book. 

Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for this book which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.