Black Widow (Jack Parlabane #7) by Chris Brookmyre

Synopsis from Amazon:

There is no perfect marriage. There is no perfect murder.

Diana Jager is clever, strong and successful, a skilled surgeon and fierce campaigner via her blog about sexism. Yet it takes only hours for her life to crumble when her personal details are released on the internet as revenge for her writing.

Then she meets Peter. He's kind, generous, and knows nothing about her past: the second chance she's been waiting for. Within six months, they are married. Within six more, Peter is dead in a road accident, a nightmare end to their fairy-tale romance.

But Peter's sister Lucy doesn't believe in fairy-tales, and tasks maverick reporter Jack Parlabane with discovering the dark truth behind the woman the media is calling Black Widow.

My review:

Well this was a storm of a book for me and a fantastic read.

Although this book is the seventh in Jack Parlabane series, it read well on its own and was a brilliant introduction into the author’s works.  I will most certainly look out for more.

This drama/thriller/crime novel is an intelligent piece of work and has twists and turns throughout.  Just as you start really disliking one character, you find out more about them and like them again.

Diana seems like the perfect suspect for a murder. Her husband Peter thought of as the poor man that married the coldhearted carrier woman nobody else would want. But the knock on the door one morning changes their lives forever.

Jack Parlabane is a disgraced reporter living in shame and not much work to do, when the story of Peter’s accident and disappearance is brought to him by no other than Peter’s sister Lucy.  She comes across as a loving family member with true cause for worry about the marriage and relationship between her brother and his wife.

But nothing is what it seems and as Jack scratches surface after surface he gets deeper into the lives of all involved and realises that everyone has secrets and that a long planned masterplan is in motion.

I cannot express in words how much I enjoyed this book. It is clever, keeps you on the edge and changes your mind with every new piece of information it gives you.  Characters are likable and believable and overall this book just shows how complicated relationships and lives actually are.

For me this was a fantastic introduction to the works of Chris Brookmyre and I thank the author and NetGalley for access to this book in return for an honest review.

My rating: 5/5