E-book
The widow
Record details
- ISBN: 9780143197614
- ISBN: 0143197614
- ISBN: 1101990465
- ISBN: 9781101990469
- ISBN: 9780143197607
- ISBN: 0143197606
- ISBN: 9781101990261
- ISBN: 1101990260
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Physical Description:
remote
1 online resource - Publisher: Toronto : Penguin : 2016.
Content descriptions
| Source of Description Note: | Print version record. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Family secrets -- Fiction Marriage -- Fiction Widows -- Fiction Family secrets Marriage Widows |
| Genre: | Electronic books. Fiction. |
Other Formats and Editions
Electronic resources
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2016 March #1
A missing child, an unreliable narratorâtwo staples of the best psychological suspense. Jean Taylor is the woman in the courtroom, the wife sitting next to a man accused of horrible things. The man is Glen Taylor, a delivery driver suspected of abducting two-year-old Bella Elliott. The problem is, there's no body and the one hint of a confession was obtained illegally. Several years after his trial is dismissed, Glen dies in random traffic accident. Now Jean isn't the wife; she's the widow. Reporter Kate Waters is determined to get to the bottom of the story that's haunted her for years. With Glen gone, will Jean finally open up about what really happened? Chapters jump from the days around Bella's disappearance to Jean's uneasy move into widowhood. Little slips, tiny cracks in her story, make the reader wonder whether Jean's version should be the final say in what happened. A chilling British read that will appeal to fans of The Girl on the Train. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2015 December #2
A woman whose recently deceased husband was the prime suspect in a horrific crime struggles with howâand ifâshe wants to step out from behind his shadow. Only a week after Jean Taylor's husband, Glen, stumbled in front of a London bus and died, the titular widow is beset by journalists begging for the exclusive rights to her story. Told from alternating perspectivesâthe widow, the journalist, the detectiveâand ping-ponging back and forth in time, Barton's debut is unfortunately more conventional than it first appears. At its core is the abduction of 2-year-old Bella Elliott from her Southampton backyard. With no immediate leads, the investigation, led by DI Bob Sparkes, flounders for weeks, which turn into months, until a tip leads Sparkes and his team to a blue van seen in the vicinity and thus to Glen, a delivery driver. Jean thought her marriage to Glen was the stuff of fairy tales: they'd married young, and he'd promised to always take care of her. She's the faithful, steadfast wife, even when the police start poking around Glen's life and it's revealed that he has a proclivity for child pornographyâJean refers to it as his "nonsense." But the question of how much she really knows about Glen's guiltâhe was acquitted on all charges and successfully sued the police, but Bella is still missingâis what the Daily Post's Kate Waters, who finally coaxes the story out of her, is determined to uncover. The idea of a woman who stands beside an alleged monster is an intriguing one, and very nearly well-executed here, if it weren't bogged down with other too-familiar plotlines. Copyright Kirkus 2015 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2016 February #1
After her husband is hit by a bus and killed, Jean is not the typical grieving widow, but Glen was not the average spouse either. Four years before his death, Glen was accused of kidnapping Bella, the young daughter of a single mother. Aside from the kidnapping and possible murder charges, investigations by detectives revealed some shameful habits of Glen'sâissues sure to persuade any wife to leave. Jean, however, had taken on the role of supportive wife to a wrongly accused spouse. Yet, now that Glen is dead, Jean can tell the truth, and reporter Kate Waters is determined to get it out of her. The truth about Bella's kidnapping, Glen and Jean's lives, and the investigative techniques of both reporter and detective unfold slowly through multiple narratives. Though the characters are flatly drawn, the mystery of what actually happened to Bella and whether Glen's death was an accident will draw in readers until the final page. VERDICT Barton's first novel is one of suspense and intrigue that keeps the pages turning. Recommended for fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins.âKristen Calvert Nelson, Marion Cty. P.L. Syst., Ocala, FL
[Page 67]. (c) Copyright 2016 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2015 November #5
What would you do if your spouse suddenly became the prime suspect in the kidnapping of a two-year-old girl? That's the stomach-churning prospect that confronts London hairdresser Jean Taylor in this exceptional debut from British journalist Barton, who circles her story as if it were a lurking panther, unseen but viscerally sensed. The main action occurs in 2010, with flashbacks to little Bella Elliott's headline-dominating disappearance from her home in Southampton in 2006. Multiple narrators maximize suspense, with perspectives switching among tough-to-read Jean, whose husband, Glen, has just been fatally hit by a bus at the book's start; haunted Det. Insp. Bob Sparkes, the lead investigator, whose career the case jeopardizes; and tabloid reporter Kate Waters, most resourceful of the frenzied journalistic pack chasing the story. Though Barton stumbles slightly down the homestretch, tipping what should be her biggest bombshell, she tells her tale with a realism and restraint that add to its shattering impact. Author tour. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency (U.K.). (Feb.)
[Page ]. Copyright 2015 PWxyz LLC
