Although I often enter book giveaways on Good Reads, I never win. That is until a couple weeks ago when an ARC of Fiona Barton’s novel The Widow showed up at my door compliments of Penguin Random House Canada. The book was cleverly packaged in an ‘evidence bag’ along with a package of Skittles. Awesome to get a book in the mail, but Skittles, too. Jackpot!
I seem to be on a roll these days, reading books I can’t seem to put down. I motored through The Widow in a couple of days. Although the subject matter (porn) may not appeal to everyone, rest assured that there’s no graphic content in Barton’s book. Your imagination will fill in the gaps, trust me.
Jean and Glen Taylor are an average thirty-something couple living in England. Jean is a hairdresser and Glen, a banker. They are unremarkable until they come under the scrutiny of the police because of the disappearance of a little girl, Bella, who has gone missing from her front garden.
Told from various viewpoints, The Widow mostly revolves around Jean as she decides whether or not to share her story with the press. Glen has been killed, “knocked down by a bus just outside Sainsbury’s” and now Jean no longer has to keep his secrets or put up with his “nonsense.”
When we are not with Jean, we’re with Kate, the reporter who is trying to convince Jean to tell her side of things or Bob Sparkes, the police detective trying to figure out what happened to little Bella. It’s Bella’s disappearance that drives Kate and Bob, although each of them views the crime from a different perspective. As Sparkes follows a trail of clues, many of which don’t pan out, Jean reveals her own misgivings about Glen and what he does on the computer in the spare room. Slowly she unravels the story of her marriage and while she may seem like a victim, there is something unreliable about her narrative. She admits “I had to keep his secrets as well as mine.”
The Widow delves into the sordid world of online pornography, skeezy Internet clubs where men hide in booths to pay-per-view and magazines sold out of the back of trunks at gas stations on the motorway. When Jean finally learns about her husband’s preferences
he told me it wasn’t his fault. He’d been drawn into online porn by the Internet – they shouldn’t allow these things on the Web. It was a trap for innocent men. He’d become addicted to it – “It’s a medical condition, Jeanie, an addiction.” But he’d never looked at children. Those images just ended up on his computer – like a virus.
Whether or not Jean suspected Glen of anything is one of the key elements that will keep you turning the pages. Barton’s crisp, no-nonsense prose is another. The Widow will keep you turning the pages way past your bedtime.
The Ludic Reader 
I’m currently loving this book and trying to save it for drive from Quebec. I would like to drive Glen over with a bus though!
It’s definitely a page-turner.
I agree with some of the comments above: it’s a good story in so much as it kept me interested but it was slow paced (as someone above mentioned that it might be the point in a devastating and frustrating child-search mystery). I thought it was thought-provoking into issues that seem palpable – however, I would have loved to have a deeper insight into the criminal’s mind. Taylor has only 1 chapter to reveal his perspective and I think it was probably the most interesting one. It’s the psychi and the human nature that draws the story: how can someone who lives a relatively normal life have such horrific impulses and secrets that led to a death (and worse) of a toddler?
The most brilliant part of this book is the dive into the Reporter’s perspective and the insight of researching into the story, knocking on doors, finding out clues, etc. Overall, a good leisure book to read over a vacation.
Thanks for your thoughts. I think books like this are difficult to carry off 100%. There’s always a niggle or two – but overall, I enjoyed this one.