Three Widows by Patricia Gibney #bookreview #audiobook #series

Thank you Bookouture for the audiobook and Bookouture & Netgalley, #partner,  for the advanced copy of The Guilty Girl in exchange for my honest review. 

Publisher: Bookouture

Published: February 10, 2023

 

Summary:

She kissed her daughter, turned out the light and entered her own room. Too late to run, she stood frozen as a figure stepped out from behind the door and a hand covered her mouth. Fear was a bomb in her chest ready to explode. Her children. They’d already lost their daddy; they couldn’t lose her too.

When young widow Éilis Lawlor disappears in the middle of the night, with her two little children asleep in their beds, it is a chilling case for Detective Lottie Parker. Since her husband’s tragic death, Éilis is all her children have, and when Lottie sees Éilis’s house keys and phone still lying on the kitchen counter, she is terrified for the vulnerable mother’s safety.

Then Éilis’s broken body is found by a nearby lake, wrapped in an unfamiliar yellow dress, her mouth sealed with duct tape – and Lottie’s worst fears are confirmed. Someone wanted this beautiful widow dead.

Desperate to find the person behind this brutal crime, Lottie discovers that Éilis was a member of a support group for widows. And when Jennifer, a close friend of Éilis’s from the group, is found on a rubbish heap, wrapped in a yellow dress, Lottie vows to get justice.

Lottie dives into Jennifer’s past, and learns that she had lived a reclusive life since her husband died. She hadn’t been seen at work for months and had sheltered inside her immaculate home, only emerging for meetings with the group. But when Lottie questions the other women about Jennifer’s isolation, they claim to know nothing.

Lottie is certain that the remaining widows are hiding something. Can she uncover the truth before another innocent life is lost?

 

My thoughts:

This is the 12th book in Patricia Gibney’s Detective Lottie Parker series and this series is so incredibly good! Yes, it’s dark and not for everyone, but I do love my crime fiction and this detective series continues to be one of my favorites!

Once again, we have a fresh and original story here with this latest installment. I’ve found that this has been the case with each and every book so far and as someone who read a lot of series and sometimes gets series fatigue, I have yet to feel that with this series. I feel like I am that kid in the candy store just waiting for each new book to come out with this series, knowing I will not be getting the same old story, and more importantly I will be getting additional character development which has been the shining point in this series.

This time, the case that Lottie and her team find themselves working on is so much more complex than it first appears to be. It takes quite a toll on them, especially as both Lottie and Boyd have their own family issues they are dealing with – again, this is that character development that I love and that Gibney does so well. As the case is moving forward, we see how these detectives balance work and life, and we get what I feel is a real-life look at how hard juggling the two might be.

My favorite part, as always, are the parts we get that are narrated by the killer. There is just something so eerie and chilling, especially not knowing exactly who this person is until the very end, but knowing that we have “seen” them interact with the other characters. It just adds an extra layer of suspense and tension to the story that I absolutely love.

I cannot recommend this series enough. If you haven’t read any, start with this one and I promise you you will end up loving it and wanting to go back to the beginning. They are addicting, fast-paced reads that are just so good! I am already counting the days until the next one comes out!

 

Audio thoughts:

Thanks to the publisher, I was given the chance to listen to this one and I jumped at it. I had listened to the last book in this series and was thrilled to see that Michele Moran was still the narrator – I love when the narrator is consistant in series and she really does do a great job with this one. Once again, I found myself glued to my headphones, ending up listening to this one in just over a day! I will definitely be going the audio route for the rest of the series, if given the chance!

 

Books in this series:  

 

1. The Missing Ones
2. The Stolen Girls
3. The Lost Child
4. No Safe Place
5. Tell Nobody
6. Final Betrayal
7. Broken Souls
8. Buried Angels
9. Silent Voices
10. Little Bones
11. The Guilty Girl
12. Three Widows