The Black Widow: The true crime book of the year

Product Information

After devoting my entire October to-read list to supernatural thrillers for spooky season, I was ready to get back to my psychological suspense roots this month—and ideally, I wanted something that was a little bit more lighthearted and “popcorn-y” for a change of pace. More than any other criteria, the key thing these books have in common is simple: they are all books I’ve continued to think about since I finished reading them. It comes from knowing what the big secret is – you kind of reverse engineer the logic, like telling a joke. I’m so honored to be able to reveal the cover for Vanessa Lillie’s buzz-worthy new mystery here on CBTB today! But it is also more than that, moving beyond genre conventions to provide a feminist exploration of gender inequalities in the workplace and a humorous parody of its own narrative expectation.

The story is told from the three wife's perspectives with alternate chapters that tell us of the events before and after Blake's death. Her perilous mission will take her from the restive suburbs of Paris to the island of Santorini and the brutal world of the Islamic State’s new caliphate, and eventually to Washington, D. I'm sure the story would have got a bit more interesting as it went on, but it was very 'samey', and I am afraid to say, read quite poorly, with pauses in the narrative which spoiled the flow of the story. I figured out very early on who the killer was (and not because I'm some super sleuth - it was just very easy to figure out! Emily, Blake's second wife, is young and naïve, but truly is questionable in every sense of the word.

guaranteed to keep you guessing Ian Rankin Black Widow is a stand-out thriller, reminiscent of the best of Nordic Noir but with its own vivid landscape Renee Knight, author of Disclaimer Brookmyre opens with a dramatic court scene, followed by a series of clever twists that challenge the reader to work out who is the victim of an extremely sophisticated crime Sunday Times Exceptionally good - a knotty mystery that's not just richly, provocatively political but one of the most perceptive excavations of a dysfunctional marriage I can remember reading. By the end of the book, it's hard for the reader to really work out what the biggest twist was, there were so many! As the story ventured onward, I really enjoyed the cult undertones (without going further into detail) and I loved to dislike all three of the Nelson wives. When the love of her life, Mickey Calvey, is gunned down on a job gone wrong, Linda resolves to carry on his work. I do think the author did a really good job setting up the creepy premise, though, and there's not even that much bloodshed.

I urge you to read it, too Sun The story's characters are compelling and the mystery is evoked with scalpel-like precision Daily Mail This is mystery plotting at its highest level, all the disparate strands forming into a web and then into a knot that tightens around victim, detective and reader Spectator It's only as you're racing through the final tense pages, full of betrayal, revenge and shocking revelations, that you realise the brilliance behind the construction of this utterly compulsive, whipsmart thriller Sunday Mirror A gripping, complex and classy crime novel. And Tina - the third sister-wife is a former drug addict and prostitute from Las Vegas who met Blake in rehab where he volunteered.We find out a lot about the various wives and how they each may be responsible for her husbands dead and also about the backstory of each wife which is at times heart-breaking. Lee is very deserving of this accolade, and will have his rightful place in a pantheon of legendary crime authors who have achieved this honour.

FREDDIE FOREMAN If you think you know everything about the East End's toughest gangsters, think again. Does anyone who has anything to do with this book know how to use a comma, or where not to put an apostrophe, or how to proofread to find spelling mistakes/double words/added words/missing words? Yet it takes only hours for her life to crumble when her personal details are released on the internet as revenge for her writing. So, (obviously) this book tackles a lot of controversial topics - polygamy, abuse, cults, religious fanatics - and yet I was wholly addicted.Ranked from Christmas level 1 - 5 (with Level 1 being Christmas in the background of the story, and Level 5 being a full-on, 100% Christmas-y plot! Mail on Sunday YOU Magazine Chilling, gripping and exquisitely unpredictable Daily Record Black Widow does its best to evade you at every turn, demanding your full attention Scotland on Sunday Chris Brookmyre has some claim to be the leading satirical novelist currently at work in Britain Daily Telegraph Enthralling and entertaining Daily Express A biting satire, nuanced enough to avoid polemic Sunday Telegraph A briskly paced thriller with a sense of confident contemporary relevance The List Chris Brookmyre does an exceptionally good job . Probabilmente un nuovo marito avrà bisogno di un po’ di tempo per adattarsi al nostro sistema di vita, ma possiamo aiutarlo noi.