It’s Not What You Think — Clare Mackintosh
Title: It’s Not What You Think
Author: Clare Mackintosh
Genre: Psychological Thriller | Mystery | Crime | Suspense
Format: eARC
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — 4/5
Synopsis
Nadeeka is convinced her husband, Jamie, is having an affair.
He's lying about working late, she recognizes the signs, and she's determined to finally confront him.
But when Nadeeka returns home, she doesn't find Jamie with another woman.
She finds him murdered.
The police arrive. A detective questions her. Her phone is taken as evidence. The crime scene is processed and eventually cleaned.
And then the next day arrives...
And apparently none of it happened.
With Jamie gone and no investigation seemingly taking place, Nadeeka is left trying to understand what she actually witnessed and how an entire murder can seemingly disappear overnight.
My Thoughts
Sooo...
Imagine coming home expecting to confront your husband because you're pretty sure he's cheating on you...
And instead you find him murdered in your house.
Blood everywhere. Police arrive. You're interviewed by a detective. Crime scene investigators come through the house. Your phone is taken as evidence. Eventually, cleaners arrive and deal with the aftermath.
Absolutely horrific, but there's no question about what happened.
Except...
The next day, apparently none of it happened.
And THAT was the moment It's Not What You Think properly got me!
Nadeeka wakes up to discover that something is very, very wrong. Her husband is gone, but so is practically every indication that he was murdered.
When she starts asking questions, things become even stranger.
The detective she spoke to?
Not a detective.
The investigation she thought was underway?
Nope.
And the phone she handed over as evidence?
Gone too.
Basically, Nadeeka is standing there going:
"MY HUSBAND WAS MURDERED?!"
While reality seems to be responding:
Are you sure about that?
Excuse me?!
From there, she has to start investigating for herself, following whatever clues she can find and trying to understand not only what happened to Jamie, but how someone could possibly make an entire murder scene disappear.
And this story went places I absolutely did not expect.
Every time I thought I had some idea of what was happening, another piece of information changed the picture.
What begins as a woman suspecting her husband of having an affair becomes something considerably bigger and darker, and I really liked how the truth unraveled little by little.
A Mystery That Kept Changing
One of the things that worked best for me was how difficult it was to understand exactly what Nadeeka had stumbled into.
We start with something relatively straightforward: she believes Jamie is cheating.
Then...
Murder.
Okay. Now we're solving a murder.
Except...
What murder?
Suddenly we're questioning the supposed detective, the crime scene, Jamie's disappearance, the people involved and how on earth somebody could orchestrate something this elaborate.
Every new piece of information seemed to shift the story slightly, and the eventual direction caught me completely by surprise.
Looking back at where we started compared with where we ended, it's almost ridiculous how much the story transforms, and yet the pieces gradually begin fitting together.
And I'm very glad I didn't know too much about where the story was heading beforehand.
The Pacing
There were definitely moments in the middle where I wanted Nadeeka to move a little faster.
Some of the back-and-forth started making me impatient because by that point I was basically sitting there thinking:
Okay, okay, I understand. NOW GIVE ME MORE INFORMATION.
So the pacing wasn't quite consistent enough for this to reach five stars for me.
But the mystery itself absolutely kept me curious, and whenever another piece of the puzzle appeared, I wanted to know what it meant and how it connected to everything else.
Final Thoughts
It's Not What You Think took me on a considerably different journey than the one I expected when I started reading.
What initially looks like a domestic mystery about a potentially unfaithful husband quickly turns into something much stranger, darker and more elaborate.
There were portions where I wanted the story to move faster, but the central mystery kept me invested, and I genuinely did not anticipate where everything was ultimately heading.
I also think the title is rather perfect because...
No.
It is definitely not what you think.
I went into this expecting one kind of mystery and ended up somewhere entirely different.
And honestly?
That's probably the best way to read this one.
4⭐
ARC Disclaimer
Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. All opinions are my own.
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