THE WIDOW by Fiona Barton

THE #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

For fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, an electrifying thriller that will take you into the dark spaces that exist between a husband and a wife.

When the police started asking questions, Jean Taylor turned into a different woman. One who enabled her and her husband to carry on, when more bad things began to happen...
 
But that woman’s husband died last week. And Jean doesn’t have to be her anymore.
 
There’s a lot Jean hasn’t said over the years about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She was too busy being the perfect wife, standing by her man while living with the accusing glares and the anonymous harassment. 
 
Now there’s no reason to stay quiet. There are people who want to hear her story. They want to know what it was like living with that man. She can tell them that there were secrets. There always are in a marriage. 
 
The truth—that’s all anyone wants. But the one lesson Jean has learned in the last few years is that she can make people believe anything…



I was hooked from the beginning of this book. Different chapters told from different viewpoints introduced interesting tidbits and kept the story moving along and kept me wondering who really was guilty. 
The story is about:
a little girl goes missing and a distraught mom who didn't leave her "for more than a few minutes" in the front yard. 
a man, Glen, spotted in the area, who is innocent and everything bad that happens to him is not his fault. He was framed when he got fired from the bank. He didn't download porn, someone stole his credit card and did it. He's just a hard-working guy, making a living for him and his sweet wife.
the quiet wife, Jean, supports her husband through years of interrogations and trials and reporters. But one day, you know she's going to break. 
a reporter and a detective filling out the story in their own working way. 
Who will find the killer? 

The story is innocent enough and I enjoyed reading all the backstories until more and more came out about cybersex and porn involving children. There is nothing graphic but it's still hard to read because porn is too rampant and too easy to get to. And child porn makes me ill. The second half of the story built more and more on the porn as evidence came in. 

I gave this book 3.5 stars because I started skimming after half way through the book. There was still a lot of backstory happening and a lot of detail about the detective and the reporter and their personal lives. I didn't care about them as much as I wanted to get to the end where I might finally get to learn the truth. But I really enjoyed the writing. 

I believe this is a debut book and I'd say the author has a long, productive career ahead of her! 


L: No
S: talk about porn but no details except the word "masturbate" and conversations from a cybersex chat room
V: No