I liked it but just wasn't as suspenseful as reviews etc made it sound. Books that have the main action as the first chapter, then tell the background leading up, just don't thrill me ( )

The Knowles family has it all - at least that is the pervasive opinion of everyone who views the family from the outside. Michael and Annie Knowles have been happily married for a decade and have two beautiful children. They both have successful careers and live in a rambling Federal-style farmhouse in High Meadow, New York. While the couple may seem to be living in their own perfect little world, not everything is quite as perfect as it appears.

Michael Knowles is a rising star in the field of obstetrics and gynecology at a prominent private practice in Albany, New York. He also moonlights at a local women's health clinic as well. His wife, Annie teaches at a Catholic college for women just outside of town. Although she has only been teaching for just under a year, her courses are incredibly popular with her students.

Annie may understand her husband's stressful schedule, but she has also become extremely tired of his constant absences. It seems as if Michael is always on call for his patients, but has almost no time left for her or his children. Annie is certainly lonely; and it is beginning to feel like her role as faithful wife, loving mother, and dutiful teacher has worn thin. She needs something to make her feel alive again; something more than just making bagged lunches for her kids, making excuses for her husband, and making up syllabi for her classes.

Enter celebrity painter Simon Haas, whose bad-boy persona captures Annie's attention and interest. To Annie, Simon is everything that Michael is not: creative and passionate, and truly enticing to her soul. He is married to his model and muse, Lydia, a woman who Simon has essentially built his career around. However, Simon and Annie begin a torrid love affair with each other, and Annie discovers that she has so much more to offer someone than just being 'the doctor's wife'.

Her relationship with Simon reawakens Annie's passion - but events soon take a dark turn for the Knowles family. The family begins receiving a series of anonymous threats. The reasons behind this increasing intimidation are not entirely clear...

Michael has seemingly made many enemies of his own: primarily religious extremists who are opposed to his medical practice. Although, are the most violent threats actually meant for Annie? Because she has also made at least one definite enemy in town: someone who has a cellar full of their own dark secrets. Told from the alternating perspectives of four fascinating and extraordinarily complex characters: Michael, Annie, Simon, and Lydia - The Doctor's Wife by Elizabeth Brundage is a stunning debut novel; a compelling and compulsively readable story that is steeped in psychological suspense, intricate plot twists and intriguing mystery.

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book; as this is Ms. Brundage's debut novel, I thought it was actually quite an intriguing plot. In my opinion, the story just proved to me that if a person has the desire to do something, they can justify having to resort to any course of action to achieve that desire. I would give this book a definite A! ( )

I enjoyed the book. It was somewhat predictable, but not tiring. Good character development and a satisfying ending. ( )

Michael and Annie Knowles have it all. He is a popular and successful obstetrician and she is a free-lance writer and professor at the local college. Two children complete the family picture, Henry - a 12 year old budding scientist, violinist and mediocre soccer player, and Rosie, the adorable 8 year old who loves her dolls and her dog, Molly. The Knowles family is not perfect, however. Michael is often away from home for long hours due to his medical practice and when an old college friend apporaches him with an offer to help at a Women's Clinic on the weekends, he jumps at the opportunity. Now Michael is not only an absentee father/husband but he has become the target of a widespread anti-abortion group that will stop at nothing to rid their town of the clinic.

Simon and Lydia Haas have a distorted shell of a marriage. Although Simon is 18 years older than the beautiful Lydia, he has been with her since she was 14 "rescuing" her from a destitute life with a sick, uncaring father. Simon is an artist who made a fortune with his paintings of Lydia and now he teaches at the college as an art professor. Lydia, who seems to be falling even deeper into mental illness, works at a catalog call center but spends most of her time with Reverend Tim, the leader of the right-to-life group. Working at the same college it is inevitable that Simon and Annie meet and when they do the two of them quickly fall into a torrid affair. As the threats against Michael and the clinic increase, and Lydia realizes that her husband and Annie are an item, Michael and Lydia will collide in a terrifying showdown that threatens the very lives of all four people.

Ugh! Have there ever been four such awful characters in one book? I didn't like any of them and really struggled to finish the book. Lydia is the only one I have some sympathy for as she was woefully mistreated as a child and is certainly suffering from a deep-seated mental illness. The other 3 people, especially Simon, were despicable. I'm just glad to have this book off my mountainous TBR; that's the best I can say about it.
( )

It was pretty good - good subject matter for group discussion BUT only if you aren't worried about people in your group judging you for your side on a controversial subject! ( )