Thursday 21 January 2016

The Widow - Fiona Barton

'Me, the grieving widow? Don't make me laugh.'
Introducing a voice as startling and unreliable as The Girl On The Train, with a cast as compelling as Broadchurch. 
Jean Taylor is the wife of a man labelled a monster.
Glen Taylor was accused of heinous crimes, implicated in the disappearance of two-year-old Bella Elliot, snatched from her front garden four years ago. But now he’s dead and Jean Taylor is finally ready to tell her story. 
For the reporter who has secured the exclusive interview, this is the scoop of a lifetime. For the detective who has lived a half-life since he failed to get justice for the lost little girl, it is a chance to uncover the truth that has eluded him for so long.
It's time. Jean Taylor is going to tell us what she knows.


I was lucky enough to get my hands on an early proof of this at Theakston's Crime Fest at Harrogate, and I couldn't wait to get stuck in. 
IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT! I devoured it in one sitting and can easily see it being 2016's answer to I Let You Go or Girl on The Train. 
With a highly unreliable narrator its difficult to judge whether or not we should trust Jean Taylor, as it seems with one breath she's telling us that her husband was not like that and in the next she lets slip that maybe, possibly, there could have been something to it all. The reader doesn't find out until the end (obvs) what actually happened and who was to blame, and although the story isn't particularly fast-paced, I still wanted to keep turning the pages until I found out the truth. 
It's a fairly emotional read and I swung wildly between pitying Jean, then hating her, then feeling sorry for her again - I guarantee you, you won't be able to put this down until the very last page. 

An absolutely brilliant 5 star read - I will be recommending this one to everyone I know.

The Widow is out on 25th February and you can get it here:


**Many thanks to Transworld and the Harrogate Team for my ARC**

1 comment:

  1. I've also got a copy from Theakston's, one day I'll get to read it! xx

    ReplyDelete