Book review: Happy Woman by Abby Corson

Happy Woman by Abby Corson is an interesting and clever read. For much of the book it’s a study in family relationships, personalities and whether a leopard can really change their proverbial spots. It also veers, towards the end of the novel, into one of suspense or mystery with Corson throwing in several twists… just when we think we know where this is heading.

About this book

Happy Woman
by Abby Corson
Published by Ultimo Press
on 28/04/2026
Source: Ultimo Press
Genres: Crime Fiction, Psychological Thriller
ISBN: 176115298X
Pages: 320

Goodreads

Gwynne Hogg is an enviable woman – until she discovers her beloved dad is a serial killer.

As her dad’s decades-old secrets finally catch up with him, Gwynne struggles to reconcile the man she trusted most with the crimes he’s accused of. She tries to process it all while keeping the wheels of her ‘normal’ life turning. That means caring for her depressed mum, enduring the stares of other parents on the nursery run, and showing up for clients at her PR firm, all under the relentless gaze of the media.

But as the court case unfolds, Gwynne can’t shake the fear that a murderous gene might live inside her too.

Her thoughts grow darker, her once-happy life unravels, and she begins to wonder what she herself might be capable of …

My thoughts

I really liked Corson’s writing. She’s our narrator writing to her young daughter Evelyn, to be read at some point in the future.

Everyone around me could see that I was not me anymore, even you. But I wonder if I have ever been me. Perhaps all this time I was merely an origami of a happy woman. Complicated to put together, easy to rip to shreds. p 1

And…

Some would say this was my comeupannce for pointing a wind machine at the dancefloor when the glitter was just about to settle. p 2

They are some of Gwynne’s thoughts in the prologue as she’s heading into a courtroom before taking us back to the precipitating events 10 months earlier. We learn the Hogg family is close. Poor when young, Henry Hogg created a transport company and is now very wealthy. He’s a kind and generous man, loved by his wife, two adult kids and brother, and all who know him. Until they find out he’s a serial killer. Well… he was.

We learn that (over a five year span) 20 years earlier Henry killed five people. We get the details from conversations he has with his lawyer, Jackson. Henry had a violent upbringing, allowing his father to beat him to protect his mother and brother. When it’s his turn, he’s determined to be a good husband and father, but there’s a latent anger simmering away. He tells Jackson how it erupted (five times) years before, but also how he learned to control it… becoming the man his friends, family, employees and others see now.

Gwynne is very much like her father and runs her own successful business. When Henry confesses his guilt to her she worries that she may have inherited a ‘serial killer’ gene… as she’s prone to rage, as is her brother. This book is very much about Gwynne. How heavily her family relies on her after her father’s charged. Not just to keep her mother, brother and uncle from spiralling, but help in the family business and deal with Jackson. She starts disintegrating herself. Drinking heavily to the point that her husband moves out with their toddler Evelyn, believing she’s endangering her by drink-driving and making poor decisions when drunk.

The family dynamics here are fascinating. And Corson gives Gwynne the consciousness to be aware how things are evolving.

My relationship with my mum is changing. Before all this, we had a sweet friendship. I relied on her for nothing except unconditional love and her the same with me. We would watch movies, go out for coffee, sit in the garden in comfortable silence. If I ever had a problem to talk about, I would go to Dad. Me and him think the same, except he has many more years of life experience to assist in navigating my issues. Mum and me simply got to enjoy one another. But things have shifted. Now our love is extricably linked by fear. Fear that she will not survive this. p 82

In addition to the theme around relationships, I also enjoyed Gwynne’s concern about genetics. What she might have inherited from her father and his family, in addition to business smarts and reliability. The good ol’ nature vs nurture question. And then there is the issue of rehabilitation. I perhaps would have liked Corson to dig into this a little more, particularly given the way Henry is very honest about the way he was conscious of what he was doing (though that’s not what Jackson argues in court) and made a decision to change. I pondered on that a little… whether murderers can rein their behaviour in when something more precious comes along (in Henry’s case, his family).

Corson shakes things up a bit at the end and I very much liked the way this wraps up. This would be a good bookclub read for the many reasons I mention above. I should mention it’s also set against a backdrop of wealthy families and Gwynne’s prime position when it comes to Evelyn’s nursery school’s pecking order, and her fall from grace and the bitchiness that prevails after her father’s arrested.

Happy Woman by Abby Corson was published in Australia by Ultimo and is now available.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.