Review: The Client

Kate Goss, The Client: A Domestic Psychological Thriller (Hylosis Publishing 2025)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/231652804-the-client?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_15

Who is that man beside you?

Newly-weds line editor Natalie and film editor David have been fighting—fighting about money. Natalie has lost her biggest client, Alan, and the couple’s finances are strained. They have even lost their home. In between job searching, she works on her novel, but her confidence is shattered. She even begins to have doubts about David. Her dog Barley and her husband do not get along.
Alan’s wife Amanda contacts her for information, and she learns that Alan hasn’t just ghosted her, he’s disappeared. For some reason, David is suspicious. Why had Alan been sending her travel pieces to edit, Amanda said he never travelled? A budding friendship with Amanda is stymied when Amanda accuses Natalie of ‘having an affair’ with her husband. That’s crazy, Natalie thinks, I’ve never even met the man in person, only emails.
I chuckled at Natalie’s comment: ‘How was I to know he never published any of the work he sent me?’ Since 1998 haven’t we all immediately Google searched every name we come across?
I thought the dog not liking David was a lovely bit of foreshadowing.
For many chapters, nothing much happens, then about 62% in, you sense a twist is coming. At 73%, it hits, and Amanda’s bizarre accusations begin to make sense. The twist is satisfying. Can you really trust that man beside you?
I didn’t, in the end, understand why Alan ghosted her.
A really fabulous cover, except that it looks like a cat, and her pet is a dog.