"Imperfect Women" by Araminta Hall

An audio book. Eleanor is phoned by Robert at 4am because Robert's wife Nancy hasn't come home. The police arrive to say that she's been found dead after an assault. Eleanor, Mary and Nancy had met on their first day at Oxford University 20+ years before. Nancy was beautiful, a translator with a daughter Zara now at Oxford. She'd been having an affair for a year.

Eleanor is single, working in the charity sector. Her father's dead, her mother senile. A few weeks after the funeral she has sympathy sex with Robert. Eleanor has a neighbour, Irena, whose family suffered during WWW2, and who's a surrogate granny.

Mary's (unpleasant?) husband Howard is ill, causing Mary to re-assess their marriage. It's his 2nd marriage and he's had affairs. They have kids - Marcus (17?) is going through a bad phase, mentally and physically. Mary didn't know about Nancy's affair. Eleanor hardly knew anything either. Robert tells Eleanor that he didn't know about Nancy's affair, but she discovers that he did - Nancy had told him. Irena dies when Eleanor should have been checking how she was. Eleanor feels guilt about not helping Mary and Irena enough.

Eleanor drives 200 miles to visit Nancy's supposed lover, David, who claims that he only talked to her a few times. Eleanor goes to Irena's funeral. Irena has left her a box.

We wind back in time to Nancy's story. At an office party she met old friend Howard who jokingly introduced herself as David. She called herself Louise. She has low self esteem and quickly succumbs to his seduction. He says that she thinks Mary neglects him to focus on their children. Nancy had a minor breakdown (or at least, her husband made her think so) - delayed post-natal depression? She doesn't understand why she slept with Howard - self-sabotage maybe, to punish herself for being a failure. She threatens suicide if Howard doesn't stop blackmailing her for sex.

Plot-wise it wasn't a surprise to me that Howard was the lover. Nancy's lapse remains a surprise. And why are so many clever women attracted to Howard?

Then we get Mary's story - how she (a post-doc) met lecturer Howard (who was married to barren Penny). How she accidentally got pregnant. Penny breaks both legs in a suicide attempt. Mary has 3 kids in 5 years with Howard, who can now hardly talk or move. A year after Nanny's death and 6 months after she finds incriminating evidence, she decides to kill him. An overdose. Marcus tell her that Nancy died by accident in a canal-side brawl between him and Marcus.

Women have to make decisions that men don't need to. The mothers in this book either sacrifice their career or their kids.

The writing has a few flaws. E.g. -

• In some sections heavy use is made of "as" (meaning "while") and also "as if".
• "She felt that she physically melted".
• "He blinked his eyes".

Other reviews

• Paula Priamos
• Kirkus reviews (The murder-mystery aspect of the book is handled well, but the psychological novel is a little on the slow side, with much ruminating on the part of each character, and the Betty Friedan–era feminist themes She —career vs. family, the awfulness of housework, the constriction of traditional gender roles—feel oddly dated.)