THE WIDOW

5 stars out of 5

I've read and thoroughly enjoyed many books by this prolific author- so much so that I keep coming back for more. No disappointment this time around, either; she's whipped up another winner in my book.

Kate and Michael are the happy parents of 6-year-old Tansy; their daughter is best friends with Kate and Michael's best friends Donna and Paul (the latter of whom is something of a philanderer). For several years, Michael has worked as the property manager for major landowner Irene Waldbridge, an elderly widow in her 70s with health issues. New to the village is a Polish immigrant Suzy Baros, a single mom who is glamorous and secretive. One tragic day, Michael - who's been acting a bit strangely of late - jumps in front of a lorry and is killed.

Needless to say, Kate is devastated, especially since Michael's death is ruled a suicide. What on earth would prompt him to take his own life? In short order, Kate learns that he may have had even more secrets than Suzy; in fact, he's been tied to her sudden disappearance. The local police, led by Detective Inspector Helena Price, begin to investigate, bringing even more implications that Michael wasn't the upstanding, loving husband and father Kate knew and loved.

But although Kate has many questions that remain unanswered, she vows to get to the bottom of the situation - if for no other reason than she doesn't want her young daughter to remember her dad as some kind of monster. That poses quite a challenge, though, especially since Suzy still hasn't been found and just about everyone else in the town has started shunning Kate in the belief that she somehow knew what kind of person he was all along. There's even speculation that he somehow was involved with the disappearance of Donna's younger sister several years earlier and another male Polish immigrant who's also suddenly gone missing. Mix in questions over the roles, if any, that the nefarious Paul and seemingly innocent Irene play in everything that happened and it makes for an exciting adventure I really hated to put down come bedtime (and in the end, I stayed up another half-hour or so just to get it finished). Thanks once again to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy. Loved it!

The Widow by K.L. Slater (Bookouture, November 2021); 182 pp.