Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica

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I loved this book. It kept me at the edge of my seat and I didn't see the final twist coming. The story follows two couples. First is Jake and Nina. Jake is a successful neurosurgeon, and their relationship seems perfect from the outside world. But it's really been going downhill and they've been arguing more, mostly stemming from Jake complaining about Nina spending so much time with her mother due to her mother's ailing eyesight. Second couple is Christian and Lily. They are not as wealthy, and struggling to conceive. Christian seems to be the perfect husband but Lily is cheating on him with Jake. Lily and Nina work together as teachers at the same school. After a big fight with his wife, Jake goes missing. At first, Nina is concerned but doesn't think there's any foul play involved. He's been threatening about leaving her so she thinks that's what happened. She starts to worry when she learns that he's been missing work as well, and she alerts the police. Lily gets worried about the disappearance because she realizes she's the last person that saw Jake alive - she had seen him the afternoon of his disappearance at Langley Woods. She tells her husband Christian that she hit Jake with a rock in self defense and ran away. We as readers, really should have picked up that she wasn't telling the whole truth here because she kept making justifications of why she was at Langley Woods. Christian believes her and helps her cover her tracks, even though she's not sure she killed Jake. As the net is closing in, Christian has to do more and more to stay a step ahead. Very thrilling as he's nearly caught over and over again. Eventually, Jake's body is found and announcement is made on TV, but we find out Jake is dead by a gunshot wound. Huh? Christian starts questioning if his wife didn't tell him everything. Well, she didn't, but it's true she didn't shoot Jake. She came clean about the affair and admitted that she hit Jake more than once with the rock, even as he was retreating. We find out towards the end of the book that it's actually Nina's mom who shot and killed Jake. Nina's mom isn't actually blind - she pretended to be blind so Nina would spend more time with her. She stalked Jake and knew about the affair and thinks he's a horrible husband and Nina is better off without him. She followed Jake on the day he was secretly meeting Lily, and killed him with a gun after Lily left. She ends up getting caught and is sent to prison. Christian and Lily successfully has a baby together but after finding out about the affair, Christian files for divorce and they have shared custody. At the end of the book, it's suggested that they may get back together one day.

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