My first book of the new year! I'm really excited that I read this book, I haven't picked up a book since November when I booked my theory test and last week I passed! I can finally read guilt free which kicked me out of my reading slump completely! Review is posted below... Book 1: The Widow by Fiona Barton This book follows Jean whose husband has been arrested for a crime he says he didn't commit. Jean, a housewife who is loyal during this time has reservations on whether he is really innocent. I really enjoyed this book, as I have said above it was my first book in a little while and I'm really glad. It was such an interesting and gripping story without being hard to read. The language was simple so you didn't feel like there was a load of stuff you were missing behind police jargon and I feel it helped make the characters more relatable. I read this book in 3 days it was so good I could not put it down! In the beginning, Jean is shown to be hiding from the reporters until one forces her way into her life. Jean is described as a timid housewife who had no control during her marriage and who won't take control after recent events. I feel like this helped create sympathy for jean, and also helped develop the story as the case unravelled, so did Jeans sanity and the picture we have of her in the beginning. It was very cleverly written. However Jean is written almost as an abused woman and the descriptions of her marriage are always quite pleasant (until the end of the marriage, you'll see what I mean) and there didn't seem to be much physical or mental abuse that it made me wonder how much of Jeans personality was the control her husband had over her, or if it was her way of denying facts. Each chapter is written in a different characters perspective. I found this really interesting as you see the factual side of the investigation as well as the characters own personal take on the matter. What one character sees as an attack on them, the other character sees as just doing their job or trying to sympathise. It's really interesting. At points, mainly in the beginning, the perspectives are written at different points in time which I sometimes found confusing, but you can quite quickly pick up where you left off and figure out what point in the case is being discussed. Although I enjoyed the characters through out the book, the perspective is mainly written from Jeans point of view, and other characters are used to point out whether you believe the character is lying or not. I had my suspicions and they were right but not in the way I thought they would be. Even though I had figured out Jeans involvement in the case, the ending was still a surprise for me which I really enjoyed. It had a good mixture of being able to guess what was going on (instead of being sent on a goose chase) and having a gripping ending. One of the things I found the most gripping on this book, was the authors style of writing. In some 'thriller' novels, I struggle with the writing style which can be dense or over compensate with descriptions. I feel like Fiona Barton had a really good medium when writing this. It is really an enjoyable book. This is set to be a series, which will follow the reporter (i think). I'm not sure how I feel about this as I tend to get frustrated with series based on one character in a thriller/mystery novel, however as I really enjoyed the writing I will definitely pick up the next book : the child - which is out later this year. I think if I had to rate this book it would be 4.5/5 stars. If you have read gone girl, the girl on the train or maybe before I go to sleep, I think you would enjoy this! Next read: Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley
