[REVIEW] The Other Widow

title: The Other Widow

author: Susan Crawford
genre: adult fiction, mystery
published: April 26th 2016 by William Morrow
my copy: ARC, 352 pages
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 3 / 5 stars
goodreads

The author of The Pocket Wife explores the dark side of love, marriage, and infidelity in this sizzling novel of psychological suspense.

Everybody’s luck runs out. This time it could be theirs . . .

It isn’t safe. That’s what Joe tells her when he ends their affair—moments before their car skids off an icy road in a blinding snowstorm and hits a tree. Desperate to keep her life intact—her job, her husband, and her precious daughter, Lily—Dorrie will do everything she can to protect herself, even if it means walking away from the wreckage. Dorrie has always been a good actress, pretending to be someone else: the dutiful daughter, the satisfied wife, the woman who can handle anything. Now she’s going to put on the most challenging performance of her life. But details about the accident leave her feeling uneasy and afraid. Why didn’t Joe’s airbag work? Why was his car door open before the EMTs arrived? And now suddenly someone is calling her from her dead lover’s burner phone. . . .

Joe’s death has left his wife in free fall as well. Karen knew Joe was cheating—she found some suspicious e-mails. Trying to cope with grief is devastating enough without the constant fear that has overtaken her—this feeling she can’t shake that someone is watching her. And with Joe gone and the kids grown, she’s vulnerable . . . and on her own.

Insurance investigator Maggie Devlin is suspicious of the latest claim that’s landed on her desk—a man dying on an icy road shortly after buying a lucrative life insurance policy. Maggie doesn’t believe in coincidences. The former cop knows that things—and people—are never what they seem to be.

As the fates of these three women become more tightly entwined, layers of lies and deception begin to peel away, pushing them dangerously to the edge . . . closer to each other . . . to a terrifying truth . . . to a shocking end.

could have been better.

This is one of those books I randomly picked up from the discarded piles of ARC on the bookstore I used to work in. I grabbed it because it looks like a psychological-thriller and somehow it is. But also, it isn't. OR it just isn't good. for me.

The Other Widow follows three women: (1) Dorrie, a married woman who's having an affair with her boss, Joe; (2) Karen, Joe's wife whom he also really love; and (3) Maggie, a formal police officer who's now working as an insurance investigator. On the night Joe died, it genuinely seem like an accident. Yet as the story unfolds and a few things were discovered, it seems that there's more to Joe's death than just a mere accident.

Since this is a suspense-mystery, I don't think I can talk so much about it, but here are a few things for me: (1) during the early parts of the novel, Dorrie would feel she's in "danger" but there really wasn't any mention of anything going on around her aside from... well the "accident," (2) the women are strong (so that's a plus) and they will fight and they will dig up things, (3) Maggie is the only one I really like here (maybe because she's not involve to Joe and she just that one strong ex-police woman you'd want to root for), (4) the mystery was easy and the reveal was 'meh', BUT I do think that the twist is good (it was generally the execution part I didn't like. I can't pinpoint my exact issue but in general, it made me not care about any of them at all. Probably how the women were presented or how they face things? -- or th Dorrie and Karen that is. Maggie is obviously not included here because even though she lowkey jumps into the I-think-you're-in-danger card a time or two, I still liked her).

OVERALL, The Other Widow is a suspense mystery that had potential. Depending on how much psychological-thrillers you've read and how much you like specific tropes, I'd say you can still enjoy this. 

let's connect!