Synopsis:

“Chandler Baker, queen of the feminist thriller, has delivered once again! The Husbands is a poignant exploration of what it would take for women to have it all. –Sally Hepworth, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Sister

Chandler Baker, the New York Times bestselling author of Whisper Network, is back with The Husbands, a novel that asks: to what lengths will a woman go for a little more help from her husband? 

Nora Spangler is a successful attorney but when it comes to domestic life, she packs the lunches, schedules the doctor appointments, knows where the extra paper towel rolls are, and designs and orders the holiday cards. Her husband works hard, too… but why does it seem like she is always working so much harder?

When the Spanglers go house hunting in Dynasty Ranch, an exclusive suburban neighborhood, Nora meets a group of high-powered women–a tech CEO, a neurosurgeon, an award-winning therapist, a bestselling author–with enviably supportive husbands. When she agrees to help with a resident’s wrongful death case, she is pulled into the lives of the women there. She finds the air is different in Dynasty Ranch. The women aren’t hanging on by a thread.

But as the case unravels, Nora uncovers a plot that may explain the secret to having-it-all. One that’s worth killing for. Calling to mind a Stepford Wives gender-swap, The Husbands imagines a world where the burden of the “second shift” is equally shared–and what it may take to get there.

Chandler Baker’s follow up to Whisper Network is the dark, intelligently witty thriller all women who’ve yearned for five minutes alone in the bathroom will devour.

“It’s mortifying actually, arguing about whether her husband takes too long in the bathroom at bedtime. Their problems are all so utterly mundane. Before she got married, she worried whether they could handle things like an affair or cancer. And now she wonders whether her reaction would be any stronger and more furious if her husband were sleeping with another woman than if he asked her again where they kept the extra paper towel rolls.”

Chandler Baker, The Husbands

No wife or mother (or even caregiver) has ever not at some point felt crushed under the pressure of demands life expects from them. If you know someone who says otherwise, they’re lying! And this book is a delicious, fantastical exploration of what could be. It’s about the often unequal responsibilities and expectations that fall on mothers—especially working mothers. It’s about a group of women in a suburban neighborhood that have somehow challenged the norm. 

BUT, while the idea of fathers handling more of the domestic duties at home is tantalizingly appealing—and would be so easy to accept after centuries of women being the dominant caregiver in a family—Nora can’t help noticing that something isn’t right in Dynasty Ranch. While she longs for the friendship the women provide, her job is to seek answers. And seeking answers only leads to questions she can’t ignore.