The Cheating Husband by James Caine – A Story of Infidelity and Rage

Title: The Cheating Husband

Author(s) Name(s): James Caine

Published in: December, 2024

Why You Might Like This Book: Read this book if you enjoy

• family drama,
• extra-marital affairs, and
• different perspectives.

Who Should Avoid This Book: Avoid this book if you are triggered by or dislike

• uncomfortable thoughts, or
• loss and neglect in childhood, or
• unnecessarily long books,
• thoughts of suicide, trauma, and cancer,
• lack of depth.

The Cheating Husband is novella written by James Caine, targeting fans who love fast-paced thrillers.

We are introduced to a few main characters in the beginning: two sisters Julie and Emma, a married couple, Owen and Karen, and their 4-year old daughter Chloe. Emma is living in the city, and most things in her life are not going the way she or her loving sister would want, be it at work or with money or with her romantic life. She chose to live here in the city, far from her sister, and this place is generally regarded “not safe”. Julie is Emma’s elder sister and somehow, everything in her life seems just perfect, like she has everything one could ask for, a loving husband, David, a chiropractor, a cute, adorable little son, a nice home in the peaceful town away from the city. They have an age difference of only nine months, yet they are very different. Julie is a loving, protective elder sister who wants the best for Emma, but even though Emma understand that her sister is well-meaning, she doesn’t like Julie’s reminders of how things are not going well for her.

Karen is not a happy mother, she finds parenting Chloe to be a very hard task, yet she has to do all the chores around the house and be a good parent, as her husband Owen spends most of his time away, at work. He is a real-estate agent, a charming one, and he seems to be doing well in his job. The problem, though is that Karen simply does not feel loved or desired by Owen anymore, and she initially thinks that it could be the result of giving birth to their child, because of how pregnancy can transform a woman’s body. It’s no surprise to learn early on that the cheating husband here is Owen. The way Owen sees things is different – he was never in love with Karen right from the beginning, he fell for her really soon, but he now wishes that he had never married her. There seems to always be a complaint or an argument, so he doesn’t feel any attraction or love for his short-tempered, moody wife. One major reason for him to still stay in this marriage is their daughter Chloe; Owen is a loving dad, and he does not want their child to be affected by their divorce.

Owen may be the cheating husband, but he is madly in love with Emma, and she feels likewise about him. They are head over heels in love with each other. Emma’s life has changed since the day she met Owen, and the two bring out the best in each other. Whatever feelings one has for the other, it is equally reciprocated. Emma can’t believe how finally there is something good and sweet happening in her life. All the relationships she had been in the past were disasters, so she is extra careful and highly sensitive with her new boyfriend, afraid that if something goes wrong, she might lose him. What she is not aware of is that he is already married and he is a father as well. Owen is fully aware that what he is doing is wrong, but he does not want to hurt her feelings because he truly loves her, so the affiar keeps going on, with Emma being naive about it, even telling her sister that she finally found a good man.

In parallel, the “heartbreak killer” is back on the news, and they all get to hear about this serial killer on television. This killer kills couple and leaves a heart-shaped sign on each of the bodies to show that this is their work. Detectives working on this case have a few different opinions as to whether it is one person or a couple of them, whether this serial killer is a man or a woman or more than one person, and so on. And there ia another “mystery” as well: there is something more that Owen is guilty of, something dark that he did in the past, and now, someone from the past repeatedly contacts him, leaving him irritated and worried.

To be honest, there is nothing interesting to hold on to; for fans of crime fiction, especially, even past the first ten chapters, there is no compelling suspense. Readers are told that there is an extra-marital affair, the wife finds out, the mysterious caller keeps calling Owen, he does not like to connect with this caller, and a serial killer is on the loose. That is all we are given. With no romance, no humour, no interesting suspense to hold on to and just chapters on the three characters’ thoughts and feelings running for over a dozen chapters, It is dull and boring. It doesn’t help that throughout the book one or two sentences and dialogues are written as separate paragraphs and simple acts and gestures are also mentioned more than once in some scenes: nobody needs to be told who walked past whom twice in a span of a few sentences. Was this book edited by a professional? Will the latter parts of the plot be any different?

What’s pretty silly is that with no new event related to the serial killer, with the last reported murder by the Heartbreak Killer having happened five years ago, why is this killer suddenly on the news all the time, so frequently? That is not how you introduce a serial killer if your goal is excite the reader.

Spoilers: Soon, Karen learns the truth, Emma learns the truth, and what neither of them know is that he had another affair earlier, with a woman called Alexandria, at work, someone he believes is a psychotic person. He was never in love with her but they had sex for months until he realised that he wasn’t interested anymore. This lady is that mysterious caller; she wants him back and says that she loves him, but Owen doesn’t like her at all, and now, she threatens to tell his wife and his child all about his secret affair, which makes Owen very angry.

The drama goes on as Karen willfully initiates contact with Emma behind Owen’s back, as she feels overwhelmed by the rage and plans to kill them both the way the heartbreak killer would murder them. She is past running those ideas in her mind and she has even bought the necessary tools, but when she meets and talks to Emma, her rage soon turns into empathy, as they share a similar tragic past. Emma opens up about her inner conflicts with Karen because she has no friends,e xcept for Owen in this city.

So far, Owen is a charming man who has cheated and lied to at least three women. The only thing realistic part about this story is how he acts exactly the way the stereotypical cheater would act, deciding which woman he loves the most that day depending on his needs that day, while never really loving anyone. Readers are right to ask why those women don’t just kick him out of their lives.

The picture below should be a clear representation of how someone who anticipated an exciting thriller would feel. What. The. Hell. Reading this book reminded me of how people continue to stay in unhealthy relationships or in marriages with no love when they should leave. No, I am not talking about the cheating husband and his wife who finds out. I’m talking about how I kept pushing myself to finish the book when there were plenty of other books I could have enjoyed or with so many other important tasks I should be ticking off my to-do list.

Only somewhere towards the end do a few twists start popping up. Unfortunately, these are not so good to compromise for what a drag the book has been for the most part. I’d give this book a 2-star rating at best. The author and the publishers claim that this book will be enjoyable for fans of Freida McFadden. But no, McFadden knows how to keep a writer entertained.