Publisher: Bookouture
Release date: 16 October 2025
Back cover blurb: London, 1941: When Frankie receives the telegram telling her that her husband Dickie is missing, presumed dead, she does not weep, or crumble. Instead, she feels a freedom that she’s not felt since her wedding day, the day her husband’s eyes didn’t light up when he saw her walk down the aisle. She wishes she could tell someone the truth about her marriage, but she is too ashamed to share the secrets hidden behind their black front door. Now she is free to live her life, even as the skies above London darken with enemy planes. She doesn’t think about what will happen if Dickie returns…Present day: Charlotte is so happy to move into the tall London house with the black front door. She can’t wait to raise a family in their forever home, picturing a pram under the pear tree in the garden. But when she discovers a chest of drawers filled with unworn baby clothes, and learns that the house was left to a daughter who cannot be traced, she knows she needs to find out more about the old lady who lived in the house before them…As Charlotte delves deeper into Frankie’s life, she finds out that she was hiding a shocking wartime secret. Can an old friend of Frankie’s help Charlotte solve the mystery that haunts her new home, and lay the ghosts of its sad past to rest?
The house's previous occupant has recently passed, but had lived in a care home in the years prior to her death, leaving the house inhabited for a number of years.
1940's London, Frankie and Bertie are the best of friends, wanting to do more for the war effort than wait for the men to come home.
What Frankie is unable to tell her best friend (or anyone else) is that she couldn't care less if her husband returns from the war or not.
When Charlie makes a discovery in the house, she is determined to find out more about its previous owner, so enlists the help of a local café owner and her Mother, who knew of Mrs. F Wilson, the house's previous owner.
Slowly the pieces of the puzzle begin to fit neatly together, but there is still something not quite right.
And then Charlie makes one final horrific discovery which will change Charlie's life forever, as it did Frankie's.
Her Husband's Return is available now via Amazon online and all good book shops.
Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.