The Widow

Starred review from November 30, 2015
What would you do if your spouse suddenly became the prime suspect in the kidnapping of a two-year-old girl? That’s the stomach-churning prospect that confronts London hairdresser Jean Taylor in this exceptional debut from British journalist Barton, who circles her story as if it were a lurking panther, unseen but viscerally sensed. The main action occurs in 2010, with flashbacks to little Bella Elliott’s headline-dominating disappearance from her home in Southampton in 2006. Multiple narrators maximize suspense, with perspectives switching among tough-to-read Jean, whose husband, Glen, has just been fatally hit by a bus at the book’s start; haunted Det. Insp. Bob Sparkes, the lead investigator, whose career the case jeopardizes; and tabloid reporter Kate Waters, most resourceful of the frenzied journalistic pack chasing the story. Though Barton stumbles slightly down the homestretch, tipping what should be her biggest bombshell, she tells her tale with a realism and restraint that add to its shattering impact. Author tour. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency (U.K.).

December 15, 2015
A woman whose recently deceased husband was the prime suspect in a horrific crime struggles with how--and if--she wants to step out from behind his shadow. Only a week after Jean Taylor's husband, Glen, stumbled in front of a London bus and died, the titular widow is beset by journalists begging for the exclusive rights to her story. Told from alternating perspectives--the widow, the journalist, the detective--and ping-ponging back and forth in time, Barton's debut is unfortunately more conventional than it first appears. At its core is the abduction of 2-year-old Bella Elliott from her Southampton backyard. With no immediate leads, the investigation, led by DI Bob Sparkes, flounders for weeks, which turn into months, until a tip leads Sparkes and his team to a blue van seen in the vicinity and thus to Glen, a delivery driver. Jean thought her marriage to Glen was the stuff of fairy tales: they'd married young, and he'd promised to always take care of her. She's the faithful, steadfast wife, even when the police start poking around Glen's life and it's revealed that he has a proclivity for child pornography--Jean refers to it as his "nonsense." But the question of how much she really knows about Glen's guilt--he was acquitted on all charges and successfully sued the police, but Bella is still missing--is what the Daily Post's Kate Waters, who finally coaxes the story out of her, is determined to uncover. The idea of a woman who stands beside an alleged monster is an intriguing one, and very nearly well-executed here, if it weren't bogged down with other too-familiar plotlines.

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February 1, 2016

After her husband is hit by a bus and killed, Jean is not the typical grieving widow, but Glen was not the average spouse either. Four years before his death, Glen was accused of kidnapping Bella, the young daughter of a single mother. Aside from the kidnapping and possible murder charges, investigations by detectives revealed some shameful habits of Glen's--issues sure to persuade any wife to leave. Jean, however, had taken on the role of supportive wife to a wrongly accused spouse. Yet, now that Glen is dead, Jean can tell the truth, and reporter Kate Waters is determined to get it out of her. The truth about Bella's kidnapping, Glen and Jean's lives, and the investigative techniques of both reporter and detective unfold slowly through multiple narratives. Though the characters are flatly drawn, the mystery of what actually happened to Bella and whether Glen's death was an accident will draw in readers until the final page. VERDICT Barton's first novel is one of suspense and intrigue that keeps the pages turning. Recommended for fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins.--Kristen Calvert Nelson, Marion Cty. P.L. Syst., Ocala, FL

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 25, 2016
With the disappearance of two-year-old Bella Eliot at its core, Barton’s novel combines elements of British police procedure with a psychological study of its three main characters: Jean Taylor, the widow of the title, whose overbearing husband, Glen, once the prime suspect in Bella’s kidnapping, has died in an automobile accident; Det. Insp. Bob Sparks, whose quest to find Bella becomes obsessive; and Kate Waters, a reporter whose journalistic ideals are threatened by her exploitation of Jean. A quintet of performers reads the novel. Hannah Curtis, responsible for Jean’s first-person accounts, slowly adds a bit of steel as she shifts from polite, subservient wife to something quite different. Nicholas Guy Smith handles Bob’s chapters, catching the detective’s fluctuating moods as well as his unhealthily increasing zeal in pursuing the investigation. He also portrays the other coppers and an assortment of witnesses and suspects, chief among them an angry Cockney with something to hide. Mandy Williams initially endows journo Kate with at least a shred of decency that’s whittled away when she gives in to the demands of her unsympathetic editor. In somewhat smaller roles, Jayne Entwistle’s turn as Bella’s mother is properly weepy and resentful, while Steve West’s Glen, stretching out the suspense, dies angrily maintaining his innocence. A NAL hardcover.