Book Review Club - April 2021

This month I will be reviewing Black Widows by Cate Quinn.  I have a confession to make, I have NO idea where I heard about this book.  I thought it might be another GMA book club recommendation but a quick look at their page for that and I don't see it there.  I looked to see if it another reviewer had recommended the book but I don't see it there either, so I really have no idea.  I just know that I apparently requested it from my library and checked it out when it became available.  So, wherever the recommendation came from, I'm glad it came.

 

With that said, Black Widows is a story about Blake Nelson and the sister wives he has as part of his belief that polygamy is acceptable, according to the Latter Day Saints religion.  

The book is written from the perspective of Blake's three wives, Rachel, Emily and Tina.  Blake has been found murdered and his body mutilated and the police suspect one of his wives of committing the crime.  There's always been a bit of jealousy and distrust among the wives, and Blake has seemed to encourage that - he seemed to like them fighting over him - and that is perceived as motive.

When the police focus in on the women, they pull together - to an extent - but still don't trust each other.  They're each wondering if they're trusting / protecting a killer or if maybe they've blocked the event from their memory because maybe they're actually the killer.

I loved the way the author told the story and revealed the characters, kind of like peeling away the layers of an onion, as they say.  The story itself was a bit intense and I have to say, I took the story with me to bed and had a weird dream about it while I was still reading the book but I still enjoyed the book.  I didn't want to put it down.  I did reach a point where I had a suspicion of who the killer was and it turned out I was right.  That very rarely happens and I will say, even after I reached that point, there were points where I was thinking it had to be someone else.

Something else I found interesting is that at the end of the book, there was a link to find out just how much of the book was based on fact.  As it turns out, a lot was based on Warren Jeffs and the Yearning for Zion Ranch raid from 2008.  The author apparently toned a few things down from that because she didn't think it would be believable or authentic in her story.  Kind of fascinating.  

Anyway, to whoever made this book show up in my library requests - thank you! - I enjoyed it and recommend it!

Now, for more reviews go to https://barriesummy.blogspot.com/index.html .