The Wife and the Widow

Starred review from November 11, 2019
A tragedy and longtime secrets bring together two women from different backgrounds in this stellar family drama from Australian author White (The Nowhere Child). Wealthy stay-at-home mom Kate Keddie is the widow of the title, a designation she receives shortly after waiting in vain at the airport with her 10-year-old daughter for her husband, John, to return to Melbourne following a business trip to London. Kate soon learns that John never made the trip, and that he quit his health-care job three months earlier without telling anyone; then his body washes up on Belport Island, where the Keddies have a vacation home. Supermarket clerk and amateur taxidermist Abby Gilpin is the wife of the title, who lives with her two sulky teenagers and her husband, Ray, a caretaker for the unoccupied holiday houses on Belport Island. Superior plotting buoyed by strong characters fuel the women’s separate investigations as Kate looks into John’s activities and Abby wonders why Ray is distant and sad. A clever twist near the end upends the plot’s trajectory. Readers will eagerly await White’s next. Agents: Jennifer Naughton and Candace Thorn, RGM (Australia).

November 15, 2019
When Melbourne resident Kate Keddie learns her missing husband has been lying to her about having gone to London for work, she looks for answers on a small Australian island, where local woman Abby Gilpin is also dealing with consequences from her husband's secrets. The two women are strangers, but they won't be for long. Kate, a passive, go-along sort of spouse, is stunned to find that her husband, John, has been lying to her about work; he hasn't been there for three months. She and her gruff father-in-law leave Melbourne for Belport Island, where Kate and John have a summer home, in search of answers. Meanwhile, Abby, a crude but tough mother, is trying to work extra shifts at the grocery store to help with finances. Her husband Ray's job as a caretaker for unoccupied vacation houses is seasonal and uncertain, and he's been moodier than usual. The novel is told in alternating chapters from each woman's point of view. There are so many twists and turns that to reveal more of the plot would be unfair; suffice it to say that the story doesn't go where most readers will expect it to. The author does a vivid job of creating real characters and captures the alternately calm and claustrophobic feeling of island life. Some readers will find the twists fair and others, infuriating, but no doubt all will hang on to discover the ending.

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December 1, 2019
White's second Australia-set thriller (following The Nowhere Child, 2019) opens as Kate Keddie and her children are waiting for Kate's husband to arrive home from a business trip?a trip from which, as it turns out, he will never return. Kate's search for the missing an [an?] takes her to remote Belport Island, where she discovers that John wasn't the man she thought he was and that his past has come back to haunt him in the worst way. Mirroring Kate's story is that of Abby Gilpin, a year-round Belport resident who also finds that her husband has a past that could destroy her family. Well into this tale, White delivers a shocking, excellently executed twist that will have readers reexamining their assumptions about Kate and Abby; this and the sordid details of decades-old misery and fierce parental love make The Wife and the Widow a story to remember. Fans of White's debut will be pleased with this follow-up; try it, too, with patrons who enjoyed Jane Harper's similar The Dry (2017).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

Starred review from January 1, 2020

White's sophomore novel (after The Nowhere Child) is told in alternating chapters by Abby (the wife) and Kate (the widow), who both look inward to decide how far they will go to protect their families. When her husband, John, fails to return from an overseas business trip, Kate starts to dig into his past, and realizes that he was tormented by a terrible secret. He wasn't in London but at his childhood summer cottage on a remote island, dredging up the past. When Kate learns that John has been murdered, she travels to the island for answers. Meanwhile, island resident Abby, a true crime aficionado and novice taxidermist, must face the shocking possibility that her husband Ray may be capable of murder. VERDICT White exceeds readers' expectations after his supersuccessful debut, with strong, complex protagonists in Abby and Kate and notable secondary characters who are well developed. The plot never stops and the clever twist is thrilling. [See Prepub Alert, 7/8/19.]--Marianne Fitzgerald, Severna Park H.S., MD

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2019

Having debuted with The Nowhere Child, which won the 2017 Victorian Premier's Literary Award, Australian filmmaker White returns with a second stand-alone thriller set on an island in winter. Grieving widow Kate struggles with secrets she has learned about her husband, while island local Abby must reconcile herself to something horrible her husband has done. But they know only pieces of the story until they start talking to each other.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.