The Widow by Fiona Barton
My rating: 3/5 stars
The Widow is being set up to be the next Gone Girl and the publisher and reviewers are very excited about it.
so i’m frustrated to be somewhat less enthusiastic than the crowd this time. as a psychological suspense novel, it’s very good. factor in the debut author component, and you can add an additional “very” onto that assessment.
but reading this i just never had that moment you have as a reader when a book clobbers you; that hard to pin down sparkle
the thing about Gone Girl that made it noteworthy isn’t that it was a great psychological suspense novel. psychological suspense novels, even great psychological suspense novels are a dime a dozen. Gone Girl was a psychological suspense novel that also worked as a funny-sharp cautionary tale; a social satire with a strong voice, a great twist and an ending that lingers in your guts. it’s the recognition of “there but for the…” encouraging the reader to take a hard look at themselves and their relationship and questioning whether they (or their partner) had gotten complacent and lazy and could either of them be doing better or giving more in order to avoid resentment and … consequences.
The Girl on the Train was the next big psych suspense hit marketed as Gone Girl and it provided some of the same appeal factors as Gone Girl but it was less ambitious, less surprising, and less lasting. however, it did offer a similar opportunity for reader-insertion – the relatability of daydreaming out a train window and the potential for seeing something alarming.
that possibility is what makes me more likely to experience that elusive sense of immersion into a text. otherwise, it’s entertainment at a remove – watching events unfold in which i am not a participant; where i have no stake and no lasting effects afterwards. so while this is an adroitly-written psych suspense novel, it didn’t draw me in as much as other books have done because it didn’t have that extra ooomph that makes me invested beyond what is happening on the page.
although i’m not foaming at the mouth for it, this book does many things very well. technically, it’s a page-turner, but it’s a slow and thoughtful page-turner that you’ll want to savor more than your average thriller. the titular widow is a woman named jean taylor whose husband glen had, years ago, been the prime suspect in the kidnap and murder of a little girl. jean stood by her man throughout the police investigation and the barrage of reporters; the perfect supportive wife. with glen’s sudden death, jean finds herself targeted once more by reporters who want to know everything she’s been (presumably) holding back all these years.
the story shifts back and forth in time from the crime in 2006 through to glen’s death in 2010 in chapters designated by perspective: The Detective, The Reporter, The Husband, The Mother, and The Widow, which are jean’s chapters even before glen’s death.
despite the title of the book and the fact that hers are the only chapters written in first person, jean’s story was the least interesting to me. maybe it’s just a side-effect of having read this just before my holiday present-wrapping rewatch of season 5 of The Wire, but i found the relationship between the police and the media fascinating, and all the behind-the-scenes process and tactics very well-handled.
i particularly enjoyed the portrayal of the journalism angle, with the pressure to entertain and inform and compete with other news and media sources, the frequently ghoulish priorities and the standards by which success is measured in that world.
It was journalism at its most powerful, hammering home the message with a mallet, inciting reaction, and the readers responded. The comment sections on the website were filled with unthinking, screaming vitriol, foulmouthed opinion, and calls for the death penalty to be reinstated. “The usual nutters,” the news editor summed up in morning conference. “But lots of them.”
even just judging by the other early reviews on here, this book is for sure going to sell a zillion copies and be a big hit with readers and everyone will cry, “oh karen, why are you so wrong all the time???” and that’s fine – i’m glad to be wrong every once in a while, and i absolutely enjoyed this book, just not to the point of tru luv 4-eva. i unflinchingly hold up my 3.5 stars cats that – frankly – would probably have been rounded up to four View Spoiler »
at any rate, it’s a good read and i will most definitely be waiting to see what she comes out with next.
