

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. 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. At its core is the abduction of 2-year-old Bella Elliott from her Southampton backyard. 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. 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.

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.
