Black Widows

Blake Nelson is found dead, but which of his three wives could have killed him.

I was quite excited to read this book. I had no idea that the wives were all married to Blake at the same time. Rachel is the first wife who has a very unusual childhood. Emily and Tina, sister wives are two very different characters thrown into the mix.

The story is set amongst the Mormon faith and the Church of Latter Day Saints. The story for me wasn't overly religious at all and was really just a regular thriller.

The story is told from the pov of all the wives. This was frustrating at times as I had to keep up with what wife i was with. I felt the story started out really strong and did hold my interest for a time. Then I just started to lose interest and show more was becoming very bored. The book for me was way too long for what it was.

Overall I liked the premise and felt it was something different but for me it just fell apart because of the length of the book. This book just didnt work for me in the end. show less

Perfect for fans of the TV show Big Love and thrillers.

When Blake, a doomsday prepper and fundamentalist Mormon, is found dead on a remote ranch in Utah, the police instantly suspect his spouse. Only problem is, he has three wives, each with a potential motive. And each was alone at the time of the murder.

Each wife is keeping secrets, but it turns out Blake may have been keeping the most secrets of all.

I’ve watched several TV shows featuring polygamy, but this was an interesting look at a fracturing family. Each sister wife feels like a real person: Rachel, the first wife who grew up Mormon, Emily, who ran away from her Catholic family at 18 to marry Blake, and Tina, the former hooker and drug addict that Blake converts when he show more volunteers at her rehab.
Even though the wives hate each other, the author does such a good job showing the family through each one’s lens that you find yourself agreeing with each wife’s point of view.

This was well-paced, with the slowly revealing secrets keeping me turning the pages. I wasn’t sure who did it until the very end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

On a remote ranch in the desert scrub near Salt Lake City, a man is violently murdered. His wife is most likely the killer--but which one? Yes, this is a story of Mormon polygamy in rural Utah. Blake has three very different wives, all of which may have had reason to kill him, and one of whom has a dark secret regarding her childhood growing up in a cult with an evil "prophet" at its head.

First, I do need to say that the structure of this novel is one I've seen more and more lately in thrillers and that I find tiresome to read--that is, very short chapters, alternating point of view, all in first person and present tense. In this case, it alternates among the wives. I was thinking about giving up on it for that reason alone, but I got show more drawn in by the story and the characters. Quinn's writing is very cinematic, which makes the ping-pong structure not as tedious as it could be, and she did a good job of making her characters distinct and more and more sympathetic as the story went on. Did I see the twist coming? No, but that's because I thought it was just nuts. I accepted it, but it was like I was reading about alien beings, so strange were their beliefs. I very much liked the ending and the underlying feminist tones, but I do think the plot is kind of a ripped-from-the-headlines, throw-in-every-shocking-thing-that-comes-to-mind potboiler. show less

My thanks to the Author publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
A man is dead either by his own hand or his wife, but the problem for the police is which wife, the deceased had three. Thus begins a clever imaginative whodunit, a well written atmospheric engaging story. With alternate chapters of events before and after his death, seen differently through the eyes of the three women.
Recommended.

Thank you SOURCEBOOKS Landmark & Cate Quinn for providing me with an advanced copy of Black Widows in return for an honest review.

The story covers life in a polygamist lifestyle and the abuses that occur for many women & children.

Blake Nelson and his three wives; Rachel who was the original wife, Emily, who is the youngest and unprepared to be a wife and Tina who is everything that the other 2 are not.

The three sister wives get along to a point but there's some serious jealousy amongst them.

Blake is found dead and the three wives are suspected of killing him. He had enemies outside the marriage and
there are plenty of plot twists that keep you guessing as to who killed him and why.

Black Widows is a sinister story about a murder and what led to the murder. Blake Nelson is a Mormon, and has 3 wives: Rachel, Tina, and Emily. Tina was an addict and had worked in Vegas, Emily was originally Catholic. All 3 seem to dislike each other, and all 3 are suspects in their husband's murder.
The story is told through accounts from all 3 wives. Each seems to have a motive for murder.
The book is complex with a back story about Rachel's past and her memories that haunt her. Tina is concerned about relapsing. Emily is a frightened adolescent, not sure how to be a wife. They uncover that their husband was involved in something without telling them.
I felt this story was confusing with the 3 voices, and the subplots. I also felt the show more story went on way too long. show less

This book started out strong – quite the page-turner at first so that I wanted to plop down on the couch and do nothing else but read for the rest of the day. But, by the time I got to 50%, I no longer cared who killed Blake Nelson.

Quinn is a skilled writer. And the background of the characters was fascinating. Not only did it deal with the much-misunderstood Church of the Latter-Day Saints (LDS), along with a more extreme form of that religion as well (polygamists), but it also delved into a third level – that of a remote cult-like organization. I found this three-layered effort on a group of people not super well-known to be fascinating.

As the book moves along, you learn more and more about the three wives as well, so there are show more three more mysteries within the main who-dunnit story. Ultimately, however, I ended up quitting the book as I lost interest. I’m not sure what the author should have done differently – perhaps it was taking too long to dole out the information? In any case, I did enjoy the writing style, and the shifting perspectives and personalities as chapters alternated between the points of view of the three wives.

Also, I do have to put caution out there for more sensitive readers: While nothing is told in first person or completely graphic in nature, the novel does contain numerous references to more extreme fetishes, so to speak, and abuse to minors.

If you read the novel, or simply enjoyed this review, drop me a Comment below and let me know what you thought! show less