Giacomo's blog

I picked this up and within a few minutes figured I wouldn’t like it; in fact, I figured I wouldn’t finish the book. It was written in present tense, which I don’t like. Regardless, I decided to read a little. I soon found that despite being in the present tense, I kept turning pages.

The other thing I found was that Wickard provides too much detail, at least for me. Again though, despite the level of detail, I found myself turning pages. I stopped about four or five chapters into it and wondered why I was still reading. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be. I came to the conclusion that it was because Douglas Wickard has a wonderful way to express himself. When I read, I normally like to get from point “A” to point “B” quickly. With A Perfect Husband, I found myself looking at flowers, or the countryside, or the way the sunlight cast shadows on one thing or another. And oddly enough, I found myself enjoying it. It takes a good writer to make me slow down and enjoy that, sort of like a good meal.

He has created believable characters who act the way you expect them to based on their personalities. And he has created a wonderfully tainted antagonist. The plot is good and things tie up at the end, perhaps not as neatly as I would have liked but good. The story was missing a little of the “mystery” factor for my tastes, but Wickard did an excellent job of keeping the tension in every chapter, and that’s tough to do.

If the book had a little more mystery and perhaps if it wasn’t written in present tense I would have given it 5 stars. As it is, it is a very good 4-star book that I would recommend.