The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth - psychological suspense from Down Under

Title: The Soulmate
Author: Sally Hepworth
Narrators: Barrie Kreinik, Jessica Douglas-Henry
Publication: Macmillan, audio, 2023
Genre: Suspense
Setting: Present-day Australia

Description: Pippa and Gabe Gerard bought their dream house, several hours from Melbourne, on the coast and planned to live there happily with their young daughters. They did not realize the cliffs behind their house are a popular place for would-be suicides until it was too late. Pippa is stressed out, wondering when the next despairing soul will turn up and has the local police on speed-dial. Gabe has been able to persuade seven people to walk away, to the amazement of the police, and has even been written up in a local newspaper. But one evening, as Pippa watches nervously from the kitchen window, Gabe is unsuccessful with the eighth individual, standing too close to the cliff with his arms oddly extended, and when Pippa learns that he knew the deceased, she can’t help wondering if the woman jumped – or if she was pushed. For the first time, Pippa faces the fact that Gabe has not always been truthful to her and, while Pippa believes he is her soulmate and loves her and their girls, she looks back at their shared history and agonizes about what her husband might be capable of doing.

My Impression: This is a story of psychological suspense and relationships told in flashbacks from the point of view of Pippa, an estate lawyer, living with her husband and two small girls in Portsea, a coastal town in Australia, and Amanda, the deceased woman who went over the cliff. Pippa did not recognize Amanda when she saw her talking to Gabe on the cliff but she senses something is wrong, although she does not share her concern about what she saw to the police. Later, when the newspapers report the tragedy, she realizes she and Gabe knew the woman – Amanda was married to Gabe’s former boss, Max, who fired him. At first, the police treat the incident as sad but routine:

“We’ll be in touch if we need anything else.” Tamil looks like she’s going to walk back to her colleagues, but she hesitates a moment. “I read the article in the local paper. It’s pretty impressive, the number of lives you’ve saved. Focus on that.”

She smiles, then moves off to join her colleagues, who are huddled under the newly fixed tent. The mood feels casual, I notice. A couple of them are talking about where to stop for lunch on the way back to Somerville.

No one suspects Gabe of anything, I realize. I know I should feel relieved by all this, yet all I can think about is the position of Gabe’s hands when he acted out the lunge for Tamil, and how it looked nothing like what I’d seen out the window.

Flashbacks, unreliable narrators and twisty endings are so popular lately that I have begun to find them tedious (written primarily for the twistiness or a possible movie deal), but someone had recommended this to me and it was a very engrossing listen. I am not sure it would have conveyed such a strong sense of place if I had been reading but the Australian accents of the two outstanding narrators gave me a delicious feeling of being there. Pippa’s and Amanda’s flashbacks slowly reveal two very different marriages to complex men – which woman had the soulmate or did neither? As Pippa looks back at some of the ups and downs of her marriage, one wonders how she could stay with Gabe but she was both loyal and blind (plus, an author needs a plot!). Often a heroine wondering if her husband is a murderer is isolated and has nowhere to turn. In contrast, Pippa has a loving family close by – parents, a twin sister and her partner – so she has resources but cannot bring herself to confide in them, lest she spoil their close relationship with her husband.

Pippa and Amanda also had different expectations of marriage: Pippa and Gabe had loyalty and an irresistible attraction to each other, while Amanda, product of a broken home, demanded fidelity from Max. The flashbacks also reveal there were many reasons why Gabe might have a motive for pushing Amanda off the cliff. Is Pippa disloyal to suspect him or foolish to hesitate? Overall, I thought this was suspenseful and well done and I would likely read more from Hepworth. This review is for Australia Reading Month, hosted by Brona’s Books, and it is my twenty-seventh book for Carol’s Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge.

Source: Library