A fictional book, co-authored and with good reviews, had me intrigued enough to read it over the summer holidays.
Jacks is a primary school teacher living in middle class America with her husband of eight years. Her life is predictable and safe until the day two police officers knock on her door and advise of her husband’s death in a car accident. Whilst processing this tragic news, she is told that her husband was not on his business trip as he had said he would be in Kansas, but rather in Hawaii when he died. The next bombshell Jacks discovers is that her husband was not alone when the accident happened and that another person she does not know has died as well.
So begins the unraveling of the truth by Jacks and her journey of self discovery. She travels to Hawaii to retrace her husband’s last days and discover the truth as to what happened on the fateful day when two lives came to and end. Only through discovering the truth will she be able to move on with her life.
Each chapter of the book is told from the alternative perspective of Jacks and the person who died with her husband. Jacks relates her story from the perspective of her life before and after the day of her husband’s death. I anticipate that one of the lives of each of the main characters were written by Fenton and Steinke and this is how the co-authoring was enabled. This approach to writing from different character’s points of view is certainly not uncommon and I did not find the co-authoring dis-jointed as sometimes can happen. So why was I left feeling deflated when the book came to an end?
What I did not enjoy was the largely predictable and pedestrian story line. Even the twist at the end did not save the book in my eyes. The Good Widow is an easy summer read but it is no page turner and I think my time would have been better spent on alternative summer pursuits.
