The Dictator's Wife cover art

The Dictator's Wife

Discover your new obsession: a spellbinding story of dark secrets

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The Dictator's Wife

By: Freya Berry
Narrated by: Olivia Vinall
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About this listen

Behind her smile lies a secret....

The most gripping debut novel of the year.

'I know you would like to hate me. History is written by the victors, and these are always men....'

The wife of a toppled dictator stands trial for her husband's crimes.

The world will finally know the truth. But whose?

Visceral and thought-provoking, powerful and emotional, haunting and heart-breaking, The Dictator's Wife will hold you in its grip until its gut-wrenching conclusion.

Woman....

I learned early in life how to survive. A skill that became vital in my position.

Wife....

I was given no power, yet I was expected to hold my own with the most powerful man in the country.

Mother of the nation....

My people were my children. I stood between him and them.

I am not the person they say I am.

I am not my husband.

I am innocent.

Do you believe me?

A gripping and timely story, The Dictator's Wife will keep you listening long into the night....

©2022 Freya Berry (P)2022 Headline Publishing Group Ltd Historical Fiction Thriller & Suspense Marriage Fiction Crime Thriller Law

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All stars
Most relevant  
utterly incredible. must must must listen to or read. cannot heap higher praise on to this

wonderful

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Really dragged - especially the reader . Read the first hour several times over a long period as just couldn’t engage

The big reveal was a damp squib

The end was dull

Wasted hours

Most full book for a while

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Needed a better editor
Too many irrelevant characters and not enough compassion between the main players

Engaging if too long

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I thoroughly enjoyed this look at a fictional state’s reverence for, and rejection of, their Leader’s wife. Mother, Dupe, Widow or Gangster. It’s set in Eastern Europe after a revolution which could see her hanged but the issues and questions are relevant the world over.
The plot revolves around a team of lawyers preparing the former First Lady’s defence against charges of stealing from her nation. She’s a slippery character but I have to confess I failed to see the charm she’s supposed to have worked on others. There’s a decidedly flabby bit in the middle where the heroine has sex then just sort of decides not to bother any more and the heroine’s father’s explanation of her relationship with her mother is unconvincing at best but those things aside, I really enjoyed the evidence discovery and historical elements. Perhaps it might have worked better for me as a thriller but that’s really for the author to choose!

Excellent debut

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Unbelievably well crafted story with fleshed out characters that takes you on a journey filled with detail and twists and turns that you never cannot ever see coming. A book everyone should read and frankly ought to be required reading in schools. Freya Berry’s new book The Birdcage is as different in subject as you can get, but still full of the same wonderful characters, stories and those twists and turns. I cannot recommend her books enough and I am eagerly waiting for her third book…

Impossible to stop listening to!!

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An intelligent slowburn of a thriller. The rich characterisation of the eponymous protagonist and the storyworld, which while fictious is horrifyingly recognisable had me gripped. A stunning debut.

Cleverly compelling

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So I've listened to it all as it sounded good off the sample. However, I have no clue whatsoever what this story was about.

Listen to something else and don't buy it.

Awful

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Sadly, a frustrating listen. It just seemed way too long and over written. Would not recommend.

Too long, not great.

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