The Widow by Fiona Barton

With HUGE thanks to Ben Willis from Penguin Random House and Transworld Books, I received an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review.............


A loving husband or a heartless killer........she'd know, wouldn't she?

Jean Taylor is married to Glen for the last number of years, they seem to be a happy couple on the outside but behind closed doors there's a hint of psychological abuse and secrets that Glen tries to hide from Jean, but Glen had been accused of a shocking and unforgivable crime where he was implicated in the disappearance of a little two-year old girl named Bella Elliot where she was snatched from her front garden four year previous.  But after a tragic accident, Glen is now dead and Jean is finally able to tell her story and what she knows.........

Wow, what a debut The Widow was, it was fantastic, I didn't like it, I LOVED it.  It had everything from secrets, lies to betrayals.  It had me gripped from the first few pages right through to the end. I even had to slow down reading it as I didn't want it to end. As I was reading this it was making me question can we really ever truly know someone?? This story is told from four points of view ~ Glen's wife, Jean, the reporter whom has the exclusive interview with Jean Taylor, the detective who was part of the abduction case who failed to get justice for little Bella and also from the mother of Bella Donna, where she tells her side of what happened that faithful day her daughter was snatched.   The story does cover a few subjects and situations which we're all too familiar with on a daily basis, from online grooming, violence to paedophilia, whether it's on the news or in the papers, this story was near enough to real life. This is by no means a happy read and with the subject material it can be quite dark in places and what an ending, I couldn't believe it and I certainly didn't expect it either.  I'd HIGHLY recommend this book if you're a fan of psychological thrillers, it definitely didn't disappoint.  I am really looking forward to reading more work from Fiona Barton.

The Widow is published on 14th January and is available in all good bookstores and is on Kindle for £5.99 at the time of publication of this review.