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JILL IS NOT HAPPY

Kaira Rouda

A Thriller

An ill-fated road trip resurrects a married couple's darkest secrets in this new thriller from the bestsellers Best Day Ever and The Next Wife.
Some secrets keep a couple together. If you ask Jill Tingley, she'll tell you she and her husband Jack are college sweethearts living the dream in Southern California. Wealthy, popular and genetically blessed, theirs is an enviable life, though they've grown distant in recent years. Newly empty nesting with their daughter Maggie away at college, Jill suggests a road trip to reconnect. Jack would rather do anything else than drive to Utah with his wife. He's only stayed in this marriage because of a shared secret, a tragedy in the past he wanted to keep buried. And for his daughter's sake. But Jack is finished with the charade of his marriage. He's filing for divorce as soon as they return, no matter what. But he doesn't realize what else Jill is hiding. So begins a cat-and-mouse road trip as a cunning wife (think a female 'Ripley' in yoga pants) and a reluctant husband match wits and drive each other to the edge. But everything will be fine. Jill still loves Jack and believes he's the only one for her. She'll do anything to keep him. Anything. She always has. Kaira Rouda is an award-winning and bestselling author of contemporary fiction that explores what goes on beneath the surface of seemingly perfect lives. She is a founding member of the Killer Author Club, a bi-monthly live show supporting authors. She is also a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Women's Fiction Author Association, and the International Thriller Writers Association.
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Published 2025-06-01 by Penzler/Scarlet

Comments

Mix one-part family dynamics with Rouda's trademark dark humor, and you get the heady cocktail that is Jill Is Not Happy. A revenge thriller at its best, who knew til death do us part was so literal for some people? A clever spin on the glue that keeps marriages together.

No one crafts a character quite like Kaira Rouda. In Jill is Not Happy, Rouda brings us Jill Tingley, a wife with a seemingly perfect lifeand a sinister agenda. As Jill and her husband embark on a road trip, dark secrets unravel and the journey becomes a wickedly suspenseful game of cat and mouse. Readers will be captivated by Rouda's signature blend of charm and chilling suspense.

Nobody does twisty revenge like Kaira Roudaand her trademark dark humor and deviously toxic characters are always deliciously entertaining. Fans of Freida McFadden will gobble up this pacey page-turnerand hope that someone like the uniquely unhappy Jill never crosses their paths.

Jill isn't just not happy, she's creepy!