The Widow - K.L. Slater

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

My husband was not a monster. No matter what they say…
The day my husband, Michael, stepped in front of a lorry after being questioned by the police, my world fell apart. He was devoted to me and our six-year-old daughter. But they’d connected him to the disappearance of a young mother from our tiny village.
Now I stand at Michael’s funeral, clutching my little girl’s hand, with tears in my eyes as I insist to all our friends that he died an innocent man. Yet the questions have started, and nothing I say will stop them digging for the truth.
But none of them can read the secrets in my heart, or know about the phone I found hidden in his toolbox…
I’m determined that my daughter will not remember her father as a monster. I will erase any hint of wrongdoing in this house whatever the cost.
Because to keep my daughter safe, the last thing I need is for people to start looking at me…

My Thoughts:

The majority of the time, I do love K.L. Slater’s books, but at the moment, they seem to be a bit hit and miss. When picking up one of her books, I used to know I was in for a treat, but now there is no such guarantee.
This, unfortunately, was a little in between the hit and miss scale and was just ok. It was an enjoyable enough read, and I quickly got through it, but it was quite forgettable. I didn’t get around to writing this review straight away, and I’ve just had to reread the blurb and other people’s reviews to jog my memory. That’s not a good sign if a book has made no impact on me whatsoever.
The prologue was, I think, the best bit of the book as it draws you in right from the start with the middle of the story. It was all very intriguing; what had been found? And what had the wife been through to appear so downtrodden? Even though I liked the prologue, I was not too fond of the whole chapter being repeated later on when the story caught up with it; that felt like a bit of a waste of my time to have to reread it.
Kate wasn’t an overly likeable character, and her actions were quite frustrating. Considering the length of time she’d been married, her reaction to her husband’s death was very flat. Even more so when everything is revealed, and we find out why he died and what had caused the sequence of events. It was all a bit non-sensical.
So, overall, not the worst of Slater’s books that I have read, but I know she can do better. She is writing quite a lot each year at the moment, so maybe they are just being rushed through without the time needed to really hone the story and make it perfect?
So just a three-star read for me.