I’ve turned back to Freida McFadden for Dear Debbie.
Debbie Mullein is losing it. For years, she’s been helping New England wives who come to her column for advice. She’s always guided them in the right direction, no matter the subject. But it seems her life is spiraling out of control. And one of the first things I’ve noticed is that she doesn’t take her own advice!
This book is wild and crazy! Debbie is a stay-at-home mom, though she writes an advice column called Dear Debbie for the local paper. She seems ordinary. She has a husband who’s an accountant. She has two teenage daughters who act every bit their teenage years. She has a garden she tends to constantly-it’s her escape.
But she’s not all she appears to be! People piss her off or mess with her family, and she’s getting revenge. That garden? Full of poppies. She uses opium to her advantage. She’s also tech savvy. She’s created the Findly app and installed it on everyone’s phones.
Now, her husband also seems ordinary. But he’s been sleeping with someone else. Harley from the gym, who’s also friends with Debbie. I’m telling you, wild! And when Debbie comes by with lunch with Harley, she spots one of his t-shirts there. This won’t end well!
Debbie is constantly fixing things. Like sending an anonymous email about her daughter’s boyfriend having and distributing naked pictures of a 15-year-old from a couple of years ago. He was using pics of her daughter to blackmail her into having sex. Debbie fixed it. Then Zane crashed his car into the school. Debbie thinks it’s a win for her daughter. But she’s so distraught. Debbie doesn’t understand, and I love this line: well, I don’t get it. She had a problem, and I fixed it. I wish someone had done that for me when I was in trouble. Maybe my whole life would have been different. She was raped in college. Never healed. You can see it in the way she handles these problems.
And as the story unfolds, you realize that her taking care of her husband’s boss actually means framing her husband for the murder. Debbie really is a smart cookie.
Then Harley invited Debbie to dinner. Debbie doesn’t realize she also invited her boyfriend, Cooper, Debbie’s husband. Oh, this is going to be so good! But it’s not at all what I expected! It’s not her husband, Cooper, it’s Jesse, a stand-in! Cooper never cheated on her. And she knew that. (Jesse works with Cooper at the accounting firm.) Jesse collapses on the sofa, the damn opium Debbie slipped into his water bottle. Then she takes out the gun and shoots Harley.
And as it turns out, it’s not her husband’s gun. It’s Jesse’s. She used Jesse’s gun to shoot their boss and now Harley. And Debbie made it look like Jesse was the one who took the money from the business account. There’s also the camera at Ken’s house.
But why? Debbie whispers to him, “You deserve this, Hutch.” Then she puts the gun in his hand. And who’s at the door? Cooper. The real Cooper. He’d been driving around looking for her. And right there, he tells her he’s an alcoholic. And she tells her secret that she’d been raped in college.
Jesse goes to prison. Then gets beaten up by his cellmates. Apparently, he did way worse things in college. And his cellmate owes another prisoner.
Things with the family seem to be good. There’s marriage counseling, Lexi is in college, Cooper started his own accounting firm that’s booming, and Debbie is contracted to start a new dating app with tons of financial resources.
And there’s another kicker. The lady at the gym turned out to be Cooper’s boss’s wife. She had written to Debbie about financial abuse. Debbie’s response to her was what got her fired from that gig in the first place. Full circle.
This was a great, fun, and twisty book. I love Freida McFadden books, and this one I read in two days. So fantastic and quirky!!