Kristina Anderson
The Widow by Fiona Barton is supposed to be a suspense/mystery novel but it does not succeed. The book starts out in June of 2010. Jean Taylor’s husband was hit by a bus. Jean is sorry to lose her husband, but the scandal before his death was overwhelming. Glen Taylor was accused of kidnapping and killing a little girl (Bella Elliott). The police (especially Detective Inspector Bob Sparkes) could not prove that Glen committed the crime and now they may never find the out the truth. Kate Waters is a reporter with the Daily Post. She wants to get Jean’s story for their newspaper. Kate gets through the door and convinces Jean to sell her story to the Daily Post. We get to find out what Jean actually knew about Glen’s activities (the book then goes back to 2006). Did Glen kidnap and murder Bella Elliott? Can Jean lead the police to the body to give closure to Bella’s mother, Dawn? The Widow is a slow moving book. It reminded me of oxen pulling a covered wagon across the open prairie (a long, slow journey). The writing itself is okay, but I found it lacking. The book is very dull with no action and a lousy ending. The first 17% of the book is just about Jean and her life with Glen. There is no action or mention of Glen’s crimes. The book goes back and forth from the present to the past. We get to see how Glen and Jean met, their life, etc. We also find out about Bella and her mother, Dawn. The police investigation into the crime. There is no suspense (not a page-turner). The book does not hold your attention. I give The Widow 1.5 out of 5 stars. The basic concept (the crime) is interesting, but the writer did not do a good job developing it. I received a complimentary copy of The Widow from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
9 people found this review helpful
Deborah Craytor
3.5 stars Glen Taylor, accused but not convicted of the 2006 abduction of two-year-old Bella Elliott, is struck by a bus and killed four years later. Fiona Barton's The Widow moves back and forth between these two events and is narrated from the perspectives of three main characters: DI Bob Sparkes, the lead detective still haunted by Bella's disappearance; Kate Waters, the reporter who covered Bella's case and sees Glen's death as an opportunity to revive the story; and Jean, the titular widow, who may, or may not, know more about her husband's actions than she is willing to admit. The sections featuring Sparkes and Kate are written in the third person, while Jean narrates her own sections. In interviewing Barton for The Huffington Post, Mark Rubinstein observes that "[o]ne narrator in The Widow is not very reliable," and Barton's decision to have only Jean speak in the first person makes it clear who that unreliable narrator is. In response, Barton describes what she hoped to accomplish: "It’s a wonderful experience to be reading a story and think you’ve got things all figured out, and then suddenly, it all goes upside-down on you. The events can have far more impact with an unreliable narrator. It’s something of an adrenaline rush to have one’s expectations upended, and to see a story veer off in an unpredictable direction." Barton's failure to achieve her purpose made The Widow only a 3.5-star read for me. While there is a small, and fairly irrelevant, twist at the end, The Widow never "goes upside-down" or "veer[s] off in an unpredictable direction"; I knew what happened to Bella from the start, and whether Jean knew the truth was also obvious. The challenge lies in trying to resolve the ambiguities of Jean's character and how the reader feels about her; those interested in the multiplicity of reader reactions may want to check out this discussion: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/18082080-apr-may-2016-group-read---the-widow-by-fiona-barton. The Widow is well-written, but it lacks the psychological depth of Gone Girl and the twists of The Girl on the Train, to both of which the publisher has compared it (comparisons, by the way, which long ago wore out their usefulness). There are better novels out there, with truly unreliable narrators, but one could do worse than to spend some time with Barton's debut. I received a free copy of The Widow through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
6 people found this review helpful
A Google user
Well written, very interesting. It would nice if the ending came out better but that's real life unfortunately. Hopefully if nothing else, people can see just how easily children can be taken in broad daylight; and take a bit more caution in watching them. But there again he was determined to have the child so not much could have stopped him. Sad story but it is probably true, just different names.
7 people found this review helpful