The Widow

congratulations semifinalist in best mystery thriller category 2016 The Widow is being set up to be the next Gone Girl and the publisher and reviewers are very excited about it so i m frustrated to be somewhat less enthusiastic than the crowd this time as a psychological suspense novel, it s very good factor in the debut author component, and you can add an additional very onto that assessment but reading this i just never had that moment you have as a reader when a book clobbers you that hard t [...]

Meh This is but not particularly outstanding as thriller, as character study, or as dissection of a marriage really, it feels like it just doesn t have much to say It doesn t take long for readers to know one of the primary narrators is seriously unhinged, but even that POV didn t provide much interest and it should have You could have lost the frequency of some of those other POVs without much impact, too It s also remarkable how lacking in tension this felt, and how facile the emotions and plo [...]

Does anyone want to start a letter writing campaign or club to ban misleading book jacket summaries Cause I will provide snacks at all the meetings and get cutsie t shirts made on my own damn dime.The book jacket for The Widow by Fiona Barton would have you believe that you are about to read a psychological thriller all about the widow of a man accused and found guilty in the court of public opinion at least of kidnapping and murdering a two year old girl who s remains have never been found She [...]

3.5 StarsI ve now listened to a quite a few audio books and I m starting to enjoy them and There have been one or two that I didn t care for, but that may have been the same if I had read the book I was intrigued when I read the description for this book However, of course it had to be touted as the next GONE GIRL or GIRL ON A TRAIN I really hope they stop doing that I guess I should just be happy that the title didn t have the word GIRL in it I thought it sounded pretty interesting an electri [...]

Firstly let me say that I am beginning to tire of publishers who pump out books with the following description, as it seems to come with every new Thriller on the market of late My opinion is that if a blurb is good enough a book will sell regardless and doesn t need the hype of Gone Girl or Girl on the Train in the description.Example 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.I enjoye [...]

Oh dear I SO wanted to love this one The one everyone s going to be talking about apparently Well yes, that s actually entirely possible it is a novel of the type very much in the public eye at the moment, domestic noir, unreliable narrator, girls, sisters, daughters, wives or whatever and secrets.Fiona Barton writes extremely well in places, I have no problem whatsoever with that, knows how to pull you into a story yes, pootles around the reveals yes The Widow has a high readability factor in m [...]

A porn addict who has cybersex with strangers dressed as childrena child killer or just kinky Jeanie stood by her husband Glen from the day he was accused of Bella s murder because she believed in him She never once thought of him as a barbarian beast monsterHowever,Jeanie said she couldn t live with a man who looked at pictures of children the way he does It s not real, Jeanie Our experts said in court that they re women who look really young and dress up as kids for a living Some of them are r [...]

The Widow is a psychological suspense novel about Jean whose husband has died recently and now she has to decide how much to reveal about the crimes he was being investigated for The books is a good read for when you just want something light and it kept my attention but it wasn t anything special The characters were okay and you kind of know where the story is going to go as soon as you start reading it There aren t really any surprises.

THE WIDOW by Fiona Barton is a gripping debut psychological thriller that deals with the premise of the story How much does the widow of a suspected kidnapper paedophile know about what he is alleged to have done What secrets are hidden inside a marriage When one is suspected of a crime, can the other person really not know what was going on The story opens with a Dear Reader section before the story has even begun Fiona Barton talks about her past as a journalist and how this career, which invo [...]

It came as a surprise to me that this book was the author s first Despite the flaws, I think there are promising signs The writing was assured and each character voice had its own positives, even if the people were quite unremarkable I m certainly not convinced I d like the police in this novel to investigate my disappearance I d give them 2 10 for intelligence and effort The plot came from a very interesting concept and, as a hook, really made me think the book was going to offer something surp [...]

3.5 starsThis was a mixed bag for memetimes I loved it, other times not so much Giving it 4 stars versus 3 though, so that says something.First, there is the ever annoying references to Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train I really wish publishers would stop doing this Yes, it piques my interest, but I find myself looking for the correlation and it s typically lacking like in this case This is a good read, but really not comparable to those two.Second, I didn t like one single character in the wh [...]

2 1 2 stars So I ve already written a review recently about the bumper crop of child abduction themed books I ve read in the last year And here s another one I swear that I didn t know that The Widow focused on another disappearing child I probably should have read the blurb carefully, but the title in fairness does not suggest child abduction Anyways, as I point out in my review of What She Knew, I ve quite enjoyed some of these books although I swear it s not a theme I seek out But that means [...]

The Widow is not a book filled with twists turns so I wouldn t consider it a thriller The Widow just has a simmering sense of dread through out the entire book The reason I didn t give it 4 stars is because the characters weren t very deep I didn t really feel connected to any of the characters we me The one character I felt closest to is Bella and we never actually get to meet her If you like psychological thrillers I would recommend it but there are way better ones out there.

This debut novel hit the ground running No doubt the packing, publicity and yet again comparison to Gone Girl I mean, how many Gone Girls can there be But I guess we do keep falling for it, so it works have helped to propel it onto the NYT It s often a bit like watching a toddler on a tricycle when you buy one of those novels, you know It s like, can the work ride on its own right out of the gate, or will it be wobbly on the training wheels that the publisher and public expectations have placed [...]

This book touched me so deeply that I simply cannot talk about it Anything I say will destroy the feelings I am left with.I don t even want to fall back on clich s such as magnificent, wonderful, brilliant, unbelievableMy emotional reaction to this book astounds me I urgently need to take a walk Later then.

The Hook I believe the publisher compared The Widow to The Girl on the Train and of course, in turn, to Gone Girl Do not expect either What convinced me I wanted to read or listen to in this case was the question of how a person can stay in a marriage when the spouse has committed an unspeakable, appalling act.The Line s The simple lies are the hardest, funnily enough The big ones seem to just fall off the tongue The Sinker 2 year old Bella disappears Jeanie, do not call her Jean, has to face th [...]

Put simply I loved this book He was there one minute giving me grief about what sort of cereal I should ve bought, and the next, dead on the roadNot much blood though He would ve been glad He didn t like any sort of mess The dispassionate style of writing only serves to emphasise the awfulness of what has happened All the time I was reading I could feel a sinister undercurrent like there was something going on that I was unaware of that Jean or Jeanie as she is sometimes knew or had done somethi [...]

3.5 4 StarsThe widow is a fast paced thriller that opens with the female protagonist telling the reader her husband has just died in front of her eyes A husband who was suspected of committing a deplorable crime some years ago As the story unfolds showcasing the past and present, the reader learns about about the relationship between husband and wife, the crime he was accused of and the actions of Jean Taylor and her character Despite the rapid page turning aspect of this novel, I can t say I [...]

I really liked the premise of this read and had high hopes for it It is the story of Jean Taylor whose husband Glen is the suspect of a horrific crime We have all seen women like Jean on the news, standing beside their husbands on the court steps, looking supportive, being their rocks But, what is going on inside their minds Do they really believe their husbands cries of innocence or are they covering up for them, or indeed are they the masterminds behind the crime It seemed like a pleasant chan [...]

The Widow is a standalone, psychological thriller written by seasoned journalist and now fiction writer Fiona Barton The inspiration for this debut novel stemmed from all the people on the edge of high profile crimes the wives, the parents, the children of the perpetrators Ms Barton recognized that these individuals are often just as affected by events, but all the focus is elsewhere She often wondered what they knew and what they should have known So she gained further inspiration from document [...]

Once I finished this book, I had to let it settle in my mind for a little while Now that I ve had time to reflect on it all, I believe the plot is well written and very crafty It s a stinging rebuke, an accurate illustration of society and its underbelly, but is also a clever mystery The characterizations are so vivid, they are hard to accept at times, and no, you probably won t care for most of the characters, except perhaps the detectives working the case, although they too have their foibles [...]

Originally posted on The Book NymphoToddler Bella Elliott goes missing from the front yard of her home on an otherwise uneventful day When the ensuing investigation leads to a seemingly unlikely suspect, everyone involved is put on display in the search for the truth and the missing child And to say much of it is unflattering is an understatement, especially after the primary suspect is killed in a bizarre accident.The story is told in alternating points of view from the lead detective, a key re [...]

This story is told between four people, the wife, the husband s mother, the detective and the reporter The story is fast and dark involving a missing child, an abused wife, and a husband who is living one life and hiding another The premise for the story is great, but I don t want to say too much or I may give parts of the plot away Lets just say though that I did find it hard to connect with these characters probably due to the fact that all of them were living a lie in one way or another, lie [...]

I wish booksellers and reviewers would stop comparing each and every thriller with a slight twist of plot to Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train I ve read both and this book doesn t resemble either of them, remotely.It s a debut book for Fiona Barton Interesting that she chose to focus on the wife and then widow of the accused child kidnapper and perhaps killer The point of view flipped between the widow, the cop, the journalist, the mother of the missing girl, and the widow s husband Still not [...]

When I started to read this book, I hadn t read any previous reviews I didn t realize that this is the authors debut book Ignorance is bliss.Until I started reading it and got messages like You are going to enjoy this Sue and Its an amazing read When I hear that, I think.hhmmmm I hope so.But if its from some reviewers who I know is spot on then it makes all the difference and I got some of those, so I thought.s I have to honestly say that I am gobsmacked this is Fiona Barton s debut book It has [...]

.

Top 50 Books of 2016 Smartly written, Fiona Barton s debut THE WIDOW,most definitely lives up to the hype a wicked, deliciously evil, slow burning, taut psychological suspense the author definitely knows her way around the media, investigations, obsessions, and crazies Even though this is a debut, shocking , this is not Barton s first rodeo Have you read her bio Impressive.While readers seem to be flocking to psychological suspense and suburban noirs 2016 brings a mix of the hottest new genre, f [...]

Let me first start by saying this is not another Gone Girl or Girl On The Train.I enjoyed the book as I went into it without any expectations It s a simple story , well written with clearly defined characters.I would put in the mystery genre Little Bella is kidnapped from her backyard and Glen is suspected of the crime.DI Bob Sparks investigates the crime and gets personally involved with the case Did Glen commit the crime or not and was his wife Jean involved in it I found the book an easy read [...]

There has been an awful lot of hype surrounding this book and with the promise of a supreme psychological thriller and the usual comparisons to other well known books, I was excited to read this and maybe was expecting too much For me personally, it didn t live up to its promise To start with, I didn t find it thrilling It was of a slow burner, and I had no difficulties putting it down at any time I love thrillers that have a few surprises and maybe an unexpected final twist or at least somethi [...]

I had this recommended by one of my Goodread friends and it proved to be a good call This debut novel by author Fiona Barton is a psychological thriller that makes you want to keep reading to find out but if I am honest I found it dragged slightly at times That said there were lots of promising signs, generally well written, decent characters and a good premise.A 2 year old child, Bella Elliott is taken from the front yard of her home and an investigation throws up an unlikely suspect named Gle [...]