Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Sister-in-Law

  • An Utterly Gripping Psychological Thriller
  • By: Sue Watson
  • Narrated by: Diana Croft
  • Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (315 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Sister-in-Law cover art

The Sister-in-Law

By: Sue Watson
Narrated by: Diana Croft
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £19.00

Buy Now for £19.00

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Our Little Lies cover art
First Date cover art
The Woman Next Door cover art
The Empty Nest cover art
The Lodge cover art
The Doctor's Wife cover art
The Forever Home cover art
The Wedding Day cover art
The New Wife cover art
The Resort cover art
The Ex-Wife cover art
The Perfect Girlfriend cover art
Happily Married cover art
The Party on Laurel Street cover art
Too Good to Be True cover art
All Good Things cover art

Summary

"You don't think Jamie and I have secrets, do you? No, we tell each other everything", she smiled. "Including your dirty little secret. So, thinking about it, maybe it's time to start being nice to me?"

The wife: Clare is ready for a break. It's been a tough year and now she wants to put her feet up. Arriving at the Italian villa for their summer holiday, she decides it's high time her husband and his family did some of the work. After all, her husband owes her....

The husband: Even though Dan had his head turned by someone else, he's realised the error of his ways. He's here now, and he says it's for keeps. Clare can trust him, can't she? At least he'll have his brother there, to keep him in line....

The brother: Jamie is the prodigal child, back in the family fold again, after years of travelling abroad. But when he gets to the villa, he's not alone. He's brought a wife, someone none of them have met before.

The sister-in-law: Ella is everything Clare isn't. Glamorous. Young. Influential. But she knows a secret about Clare. Something that has the power to break the whole family apart.

And there's someone who will do whatever it takes to make sure that this deep secret never comes to the surface.

An utterly gripping, twisty psychological thriller perfect for fans of Before I Go to Sleep, The Girl on the Train, and Date Night.

"Tense, atmospheric psychological thriller with more twists and turns than a rollercoaster. Impeccably written and a big fat 5 stars from me. Awesome!" (Number one best-selling author Angela Marsons)

©2020 Sue Watson (P)2020 Bookouture

What listeners say about The Sister-in-Law

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    169
  • 4 Stars
    82
  • 3 Stars
    43
  • 2 Stars
    17
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    152
  • 4 Stars
    46
  • 3 Stars
    41
  • 2 Stars
    14
  • 1 Stars
    14
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    130
  • 4 Stars
    74
  • 3 Stars
    37
  • 2 Stars
    17
  • 1 Stars
    8

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Another depressing tale of a ditchwater dull wimp

Ok ...... it was a great cover - a glamorous holiday setting, an intriguing premise and a writer whose books I have enjoyed in the past - well one or two which I thought were well written but became rather unbelievable.

This one started off so well and I was licking my lips as the story got going but then it took a turn for comedy with the main character quickly melting down into a stereotypical stooge and wishy washy wimp.

It was hard to know if it was meant to be funny or not but it certainly was fairly broad comedy and disappointing that this is yet another overweight, frumpy, boring woman, obsessed with her children and trying to keep her marriage from collapsing while blaming herself for not being a supermodel.

I soon began to far prefer and identify with the glamorous sister-in-law especially when there is so much anti- vegetarianism and veganism spouted against her by Mrs Dull (yes I cannot recall her name) - she only develops a backbone when she feels awkward about eating a hunk of lamb. "I am an animal lover ........ but I love eating meat! Also do not mention the benefits of not eating meat or how Veganism can benefit the planet as it is hard enough to get my kids to eat meat as it is."

Yes, it was then I jumped ship to team Ellie as she cooked fabulous Vegan meals for 5 adults and three children and Mrs Mopey moaned about not being able to make Meat Balls with her Mum in Law like she did every year.
Jeepers woman - you are a full time nurse as well as a mum of 2 very young children and a 9 year old - what are you complaining about and if you are so worried about being porky, maybe this might actually help you lose some weight.

So as cartoon style baddies and stereotypical downtrodden frumpy wives go there were really no surprises here but it could have been so much better if it had not been laid on with a trowel and if the protagonist had not been quite such a drip. She is meant to be a nurse so rather unbelievable that she could be such a pushover as that is one tough profession and this puddle of patheticness and self doubt would not have lasted a minute on the wards.

Of course Mrs Dull is just a character but she was so submissive (except about the thought of not being able to eat meat) and just such a sad domestic drone, I lost patience with her feelings being hurt and the secrets she mentioned that she was so afraid of coming out, I felt might be on a scale of swapping butter for margarine in her scones or having a gym membership that she never used.

YAWN!

Not sure if the narration or writing made this character so insufferable, I think maybe a different, less downtrodden sounding narrator might have saved the book. Weird accents, mumsy delivery and so much saliva in the read that sometimes the voice sounded like a wet bag flapping - voluminous and sloppy.

The worst thing about the book was how drearily repetitive it was, just the same topic covered in 36 different ways and rehashed again and again so the book became stagnant and I just gave up as just so many unlikable characters, bad accents, slurpy narration and nothing happening for chapters and chapter as we just covered the same old topics said in slightly different ways.

I will look out for Sue Watson again as she has written much better books before and I will also watch out for Diana Croft with a view to avoiding as just too insipid and irritating to listen to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good story appalling narration

The narrator would be more at home reading children’s stories I nearly gave up as I couldn’t stand her narration but the story kept me going

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Okay - but narration not for me

I found the story engaging, but couldn’t listen in too big a timescale due to the narration. The narrator had a sing song style and a bit manic approach and it was not a relaxing listen. The story kept me going and I finally managed to listen to the end this morning.

Summary - story okay, but narration annoying.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Well I didn’t see that coming.

Read, read, read.
I loved every moment, couldn’t put it down and literally can’t wait to read it again and again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Guessed the ending

I guessed exactly how this plot was going to go and guessed the ending/revelation much earlier than the author intended the reader to.

I also did not like the narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not for me

I don’t like writing bad reviews but the characters were so predictably annoying and weak. The narrator was very difficult to listen to as was making every small non event sound dramatic. Really disappointing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

ok

it was OK... I guessed one of the twists practically straight away and there was a lot of "fluff" in the middle that went on and on with not much really happening until the last couple of chapters.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding

Twists and turns right till the end. Very enjoyable. Thank you @Sue Watson another gem.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good story but really annoying narration

Although a bit slow in places, i enjoyed the story overall. It was a bit unbelievable how all the horrible behaviour went completely unnoticed. The phrase "I looked around to see if anyone noticed what she said, but they were busy doing x,y and z" I felt was pretty overused but aside from that the story was enjoyable. The narration however, was not for me. The accents the narrator put on for the kids and the male characters did my head in. I found it tricky to distinguish Claire from Ella too.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Super tense, great listen!

I had got a certain impression and while I’d clocked the twist further into the story it worked because I still wasn’t sure and it wasn’t quite what I expected!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!