Book
The third wife : a novel / Lisa Jewell.
In the early hours of a summer morning, a young woman steps into the path of an oncoming bus. A tragic accident? Or suicide? At the center of this puzzle is Adrian Wolfe, a successful architect and grief-stricken widower, who, a year after his third wife's death, begins to investigate the cause. As Adrian looks back on their brief but seemingly happy marriage, disturbing secrets begin to surface. The divorces from his two previous wives had been amicable, or so it seemed; his children, all five of them, were resilient as ever, or so he thought. But something, or someone, must have pushed Maya over the edge...
Record details
- ISBN: 9781476792194 (trade pbk.)
- Physical Description: 328 p. ; 21 cm.
- Publisher: New York : Atria Books, c2015.
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Wives > Death > Fiction. Widowers > Fiction. Divorced men > Fiction. Divorced people > Fiction. Remarried people > Fiction. Secrecy > Fiction. |
| Genre: | Mystery fiction Suspense fiction. Psychological thriller. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Russell and District Regional Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russell Library | AF JEW (Text) | 36730000102459 | Adult Fiction Paperback | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2015 May #2
Adrian Wolfe, 48, prides himself on how well his two ex-wives, five children, and new, much younger wife, Maya, have blended. Then Maya gets very, very drunk and is hit by a bus. Adrian accepts the fact that the death of his third wife was an accident; that is, until beautiful Jane comes to adopt Maya's cat and leaves a strangely blank cell phone behind. His youngest daughter tells him that she saw Jane watching her at skating practice, while his oldest daughter, Cat, discovers that Jane is not Jane at all. But who is she? And what does she know about Maya's death? As Adrian tries his best to avoid facing the fact that his marriage was troubled, his blended family face their own roles in Maya's death. As in The House We Grew Up In (2014), Jewell excels at juggling multiple perspectives to slowly peel back the layers of supposed domestic bliss. Like Liane Moriarty, she manages the perfect blend of women's fiction and nail-biting suspense, throwing enough red herrings in the reader's path to keep the pages turning. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2015 April #2
British bestseller Jewell's last few novels have been a revelationâemotionally sophisticated and complexâand this latest, which gradually rewrites the history of a "perfect" family, is a fine follow-up. Late one night, alone and uncharacteristically drunk, 30-year-old Maya is hit by a London bus. Was it an accident? Suicide? Her husband, Adrian, can't imagine why his sweet Maya would want to kill herself, but as the novel unfolds, cracks are revealed in his perfect family. An architect pushing 50, Adrian Wolfe is a lovely man, as everyone agrees. His first wife, Susie, mother of the gregarious Cat and pretentious Luke, both in their 20, holds no hard feelings that he left her in the country for a glamorous London life with the chic Caroline. Caroline lives in their stunningly restored Islington townhouse with their three children, all under 12, Otis, Pearl, and Beau. When, four years ago, Adrian left Caroline for Maya, he made every effort to keep the family intac tâall of them holiday together (three wives, five children) and happily share custody. Or so Adrian insists to anyone who asks. When a strange woman begins stalking him, and Luke finds threatening emails addressed to Maya on her laptop, Adrian begins to investigate. In flashbacks from Maya's perspective, another side of the Wolfe family is revealedâshe feels like an interloper, childless in a family where children are totems, and is slowly disintegrating from the onslaught of anonymous emails (though she knows they must be from a family memberâthe missives are too intimate and immediate to have been written by anyone else). Most damning of all, she finds herself falling in love with the family's other outsider, Luke. Adrian is convinced the woman stalking him has answers, if only he can track her down. Although it is certain no one literally pushed Maya into that bus, Jewell shapes the novel as part whodunit, part psychological thriller: Maya was excised fr o m the family, but why and by whom? Taut pacing and complicated characters shape this rich examination of the modern family. Copyright Kirkus 2015 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2015 May #2
Jewell (The Making of Us; The House We Grew Up In) introduces us to Adrian Wolfe, who has left a trail of ex-wives and children in his quest for love. His third wife, Maya, stepped in front of a bus and was killed; she had not conceived before her mysterious death. Maya also had received a steady stream of hateful emails. These vitriolic correspondences contain information only an insider from one of Adrian's families could knowâ¦or someone talking to an insider. Grief-stricken Adrian wants to place Maya's cat Billie in a loving home when Jane appears. Adrian is transfixed by Jane, but as he sees more of her, questions arise. Who is Jane really? And what does she want from Adrian? Jewell tells the story from multiple viewpoints, giving it much greater depth than if it had been told from only Adrian's perspective. The characters are quite distinctly drawn, and the author effectively switches between past and present to keep readers engaged. VERDICT A great choice for readers seeking a mystery with a blended family twist. [See Prepub Alert, 11/25/14.]âJennifer M. Schlau, Elgin Community Coll., IL
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