The Widow by Fiona Barton

The disappearance of Bella Elliot rocked a nation and controlled the lives of so many.

Detective Inspector Bob Sparkes was consumed with the need to find her.

Bella’s mother, Dawn, was consumed by her grief while the anguish over being unable to have children consumed Jean Taylor.

Much of Kate’s adult life has been consumed with her journalism, but the Bella case adds fuel to that flame.

For Glen Taylor’s life is consumed by Glen Taylor. He is a controlling narcissist, addicted to pornography and a master of manipulating people. Especially his “Jeannie.”

In The Widow by Fiona Barton, the investigation into Bella’s disappearance leads DI Sparkes to Glen’s door. Jean knows the DI is mistaken. Her Glen would never have done something like that. Her Glen loves children. Besides, her Glen told her he didn’t take Bella. He explained all of the coincidences perfectly. Jeannie knows her Glen.

While this one started a bit slowly, it did pick up the pace quite a bit. I thought I had it figured out, but there were so many little quips that made me question what I believed. All said it was a really good book, not quite the psychological thriller that I had hoped it would be, but a really good story.

I purchased both the Kindle version and the audio version so I could switch back and forth and I love that it auto-syncs from one to the other.

The audio version of The Widow is read by Hannah Curtis and Nicholas Guy Smith and I ended up listening to it at 1.25 speed as the narration was a bit slow-paced for my liking. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the narration, I did, I just wanted them to read a bit faster. This is another feature that I really like about audible, that you can speed up the narration.   

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