The Widow

The Widow by Fiona Barton is the story of Jean Taylor, the loving and dutiful wife of a man accused of kidnapping a little girl. Jean is a passive and obedient life partner who looks to Glen for everything and while I found her personality distasteful (in my eyes) she did make for an interesting character on the page.

Barton does an excellent job of penetrating the veneer of the accused's wife, as the media camp outside her house and repeatedly bang on the door asking for a comment. The journalism angle sets The Widow apart from anything I've read in this genre in the last 5 years and I enjoyed this unique perspective.

As the Detectives try to unravel Bella's disappearance, it all begs the question, how much does Jean know?

I felt safe in show more Barton's hands and her confident storytelling voice swept me along swiftly to the end. It wasn't a big climax, but it reached a resolution all the same. The joy in The Widow was finding out whether or not Glen took baby Bella and what Jean knows.

Here's my favourite quote from Jean from Page 176:
"It ought to get easier, but it doesn't as each lie feels sourer and tighter, like an unripe apple. Unyielding and mouth-drying."

The Widow is a highly readable slow burn crime novel with a satisfying conclusion. show less

I am glad that I didn't see all the Gone Girl and Girl on a Train hype before I decided to read this book. If I had, I wouldn't have read it. Gone Girl may be flavor of the month, but it left a very bad taste in my mouth, hence my reluctance to fall for any hype linking a new book to it. Fortunately The Widow is not Gone Girl, so if that's been making you nervous, you can relax.

This is the story of Jean Taylor, a woman who has tried her best for a very long time to be a perfect wife for Glen Taylor, a man who is less than perfect himself. As a matter of fact, readers slowly learn that Glen Taylor is one of the lower forms of pond scum. Orbiting around Jean like twin asteroids are Detective Inspector Bob Sparkes, the police officer who show more desperately wants to bring closure to a victim's family, and journalist Kate Stone, a woman with a knack for prying headline-grabbing stories from reluctant people. Just what does Jean know? What really happened? Is she going to tell Sparkes and Stone what they want to hear? These are questions that follow the reader throughout the book.

Jean Taylor's voice is a compelling one, and she gains sympathy very early on. This story is a gradual-- often mesmerizing-- unraveling of events, and the author often held me right in the palm of her hand. Barton made only one misstep: there is one important fact that Jean Taylor is withholding, and Barton telegraphs it too early. This takes away some of the power of the ending, but even so, this debut novel has me wanting to get my hands on the author's next book! show less

Jean Taylor is a perfect London housewife, a little untidy. Her husband, Glen, is controlling. He married her young and convinced her of his importance in the world. Most of it was a lie, but Jean doesn't seem particularly upset by that. In fact she's not particularly upset about much of anything, including the fact that Glen was just run over by a bus. What does upset her is the ever-present horde of reporters wanting to get her story.

It seems that Glen just may have kidnapped beautiful little Bella, who was out playing in her yard one minute and, the next minute, was gone.

Despite Bella's mother's tearful pleas on the media, and the dedicated detecting of Bob Sparks, no trace of Bella is ever found.

Glen is the prime suspect. His truck show more was seen in the area the day Bella was snatched. And there are other clues, as well. But nothing can be proved.


The Widow had an excellent start that immediately grabbed me. It was consistent in its format, if not always fluid in the reading of it, and had an element of creepiness to it that warranted its label “psychological” thriller when used. Some may not like “creepy” or the way that it was offered here, but I LOVE it because it’s so much harder to pull off than “scary” or “gross.” “Creepy” toys with the mind in its subtlety.



I picked this one up not sure of what expectations to have, this being a debut and all, and that’s a delicious thing in itself: being able to go into something clean of prejudice or bias. The Widow had resonance. It offered those shards of thought, of dialogue, of wit that ring so true that they’re undeniable and, to some, possibly even a little off-putting. This was a great debut from Barton, and her experience in journalism came through. She offered insight into the world of breaking news media with a naturalness that can only come from a creature in their own element. 4 wonderful Widow Stars from me show less

This book kept appearing as a recommendation based on other books I had read, so when I saw it on sale I picked it up. I was hesitant because it had so many warning signs-for me at least to NOT read it. They are; any book that is compared to Gone Girl, or Girl On A Train, a Stephen king endorsement on the book, an Oprah recommendation on the book. But I went ahead and read it anyway.
I can't wait for the trend of telling stories in the past and present and from alternate viewpoints, in alternating chapters to come to its needed end. Copying the style of Gone Girl, jumped the shark, years ago.
In The Widow, this method of storytelling is employed but better than many other books that have tried it. The story is not very complicated, and show more anyone who has read these types of books will have it figured out long before the characters in the book do.
To summarize it is about a couple who have a number of issues, she is weak, while he is very controlling become the center of attention when a little girl goes missing.
What made this a 4 star instead of a 3 star book was how well the author kept the story going, and how well written it was. The reason it wasn't a 5 star, is that there was no surprise or major revelation at the end, it was rather predictable. show less

Jean Taylor’s husband has just been run over by a bus. Yet, she seems relieved. She has tolerated a lot in a married life which revolved around her husband who had unsavory proclivities. He had also been the main suspect in a child abduction case. And now, journalist Kate Waters has bullied her way into Jean’s life for the exclusive story.

Told in multiple POVs and two timelines, this is the first of three in the journalist Kate Waters series; it is the only one I have read so far. It was a fast, engrossing read. Well written and plotted, it is a good study of obsession, perversion, enabling, and contemporary journalism.

TW: Child abduction; pornography

There have been so many novels over the past few years that compare themselves to Gone Girl that this comparison has become very much like The Boy Who Cried Wolf. For every novel that is similar and just as good, there are way too many that are duds and do the comparison a disservice. Then, there is the issue that in saying that a new novel is like a very popular one, readers’ expectations for the story and their enjoyment of it are automatically set. Thankfully, The Widow at least lives up the hype even though its story is nothing like that of those to which it is compared.

Then again, The Widow is one of those stories where to share even a hint of what is to come will be to run the reading experience for future readers. It is a show more twisty novel in which the truth sneaks up on you more than it hits you over the fact, which is one of its greatest strengths. For, as long as you as the reader have doubts and demand answers, you will keep turning the pages as fast as you can.

The Widow is the perfect novel for a quiet weekend afternoon or a readathon. It should also come with a warning label that it can induce book hangover, especially if you start it in the evening, as “just one more chapter” becomes the entire book. It is not Gone Girl or any other novel of its ilk, but it is still a fascinating and thrilling read that will keep you guessing until the very end. show less

“The Widow is a fast paced, steadily moving mystery which held my attention so completely that I read it in one day. It has been compared to “Gone Girl”, among other mysteries, but I thought it was unique unto itself. The content of books like “Gone Girl” is sometimes almost too difficult to read in one sitting because of the tension they arouse in the reader with their brutal imagery. This book, created interest and excitement, without including graphic, violent descriptions of events or wanton sexual descriptions of crimes, which certainly could have been worked into the tale had the author decided to do so, because of the type of criminal activities featured. Instead, the content and rollout of the tale seemed to be of show more paramount importance to the author, which I appreciated and which raised my opinion of the book.
The characters were clearly defined with their particular types of attitudes and personalities. There was the arrogant reporter, Kate Waters, for whom the story was the prime goal, regardless of the consequences, the dedicated detective bob Sparkes, who couldn’t quit looking for the guilty party, the laissez-faire parent, Dawn Elliot, the sexual deviant, Glen Taylor, who looks like the clean cut boy next door, and the sad, neurotic wannabe mother, Jean Taylor, unable to realize her dreams. The book certainly highlighted the fact that you can’t judge a book by its cover or appearance, and by that I mean a person, not the book itself.
Jean Taylor is the widow featured in the story. She is a hairdresser with simple dreams and desires. She is a very sheltered, naïve teenager when she meets Glen Taylor and is swept off her feet by him. Young and impressionable, he was her knight in shining armor. He fulfilled her fantasies about married life, and filled her head with his dreams of grandeur, dreams he never fulfilled for himself. He organized and controlled her everyday life, and she thought that was the way a loving husband behaved. When they were unable to have a child, she was bereft, but Glen chose to put it behind them because, he said, “they had each other”, and weren’t they in love, wasn’t that enough? As a result, she hides her true feelings about her childlessness from him and mourns her emptiness in private.
Glen Taylor is a nice looking young man who works in a bank when Jeanie meets him. He has dreams of a great successful future, but his personality gets in the way. He has difficulty dealing with authority, and he believes that he is the brightest bulb in the box. He does not make friends easily. He is obsessively neat and very private about his life. He prefers to spend time only with Jean. He loves her. She is very loyal and devoted to him and he takes very good care of her, in return. In fact, he tells her what to do, how to behave and keeps her fairly isolated. They have no social life. If he disapproves of something she does, she always complies with his wishes. When he loses his job at the bank, he takes a temporary job as a delivery man, and she continues working as a hairdresser to make ends meet. Soon, the temporary job becomes more of a permanent endeavor. As his life veers off the path he has outlined for himself, he retreats into his office and conducts a private life on the internet which reveals a particularly nasty side of him to the reader, but not to his wife who was fairly illiterate when it comes to technology. She believes he was just in his office taking care of some kind of “nonsense”.
After several disappointments in his career path and Jean’s overwhelming sadness about the inability to become a mother, Glen’s personality begins to change. He turns even more inward. When things seemed to get too tough, Jean retreats into her mind, into the person of her younger, gayer self, Jeanie, the girl still living at home with her parents, but Glen turns to something else entirely. He turns to the computer. He signs on to secret chat rooms and assumes another identity.
Dawn Ellliot is a single mom who has come around to the idea of motherhood slowly. Her only child, a daughter named Bella, was conceived during an affair with a married man who briefly occupied her life. Dawn is in the house doing some necessary housework for just a few moments before preparing a cup of tea for Bella. Suddenly, she realizes that she no longer hears her playing outside.
Bella Elliot is two and a half years old. From all accounts, she is the sweetest little girl, always happy and cheerful. She is playing outside with a cat while her mother is folding some laundry and getting her a snack. One moment she is there, and the next, she is gone from the yard, and her mother is frantic. A massive search begins because Bella is nowhere to be found.
Kate Waters is the reporter who tracks down Jean Taylor and surprisingly is allowed into her life. Jean’s husband Glen had once been accused of pedophilia, accessing child porn sites, but he had insisted his computer had been hacked. Now he has been accused of another, more heinous crime. Glen has been accused of kidnapping Bella Elliot. He denies it, and the case against him is eventually dismissed in court. Still, in the court of public opinion, he is still judged as guilty. Kate wants to get the scoop of her life by convincing Jean to tell her the truth about her husband. She is good at getting information from people by ingratiating herself into their good graces. She could win an award for her performances when dealing with people to get information. Her code of ethics seems to be wanting a bit, but that is the nature of her job.
Detective Inspector Bob Sparkes is obsessed with this case which is going nowhere. He knows the longer the child remains missing, the greater the odds are that she is no longer alive. The investigation into the disappearance of Bella and the ultimate discovery of the kidnapper is at the core of the story.
The court case, complete with a snarky lawyer for the defense, is really gripping. The barrister was portrayed as a sharply critical questioner who was able to poke holes in the police case against Glen Taylor. Still, Detective Bob Sparkes remains interested in the case and refuses to give up until the case is solved.
Each chapter of the book has a title with a particular character’s perspective i.e., “The Reporter, The Widow, The Husband, The Mother, The Detective. As an organizational device, this worked especially well in the audiobook, narrated by Hannah Curtis and Nicholas Guy Smith, (although I also had a print ARC), since the narrative sometimes moved back and forth in time. Knowing the focus of the chapter in advance made it easier to follow the thread of the story, a story in which lies and secrets pervade each character’s life. The reporter lies to get her story, the detectives lie to get their confessions, the husband lies to protect himself, the widow lies out of loyalty, the mother lies to avoid shame. Will the truth win out? show less