The Third Wife

Author: Lisa Jewell
Genre: Modern Fiction
Type: Hardcover
Pages: 336
Source: Local Public Library
Publisher: Atria Books
First Published: July 3, 2014
First Line: "They might have been fireworks, the splashes, bursts, storms of color that exploded in front of her eyes."

Book Description from GoodReads: 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…

With psychological nuance that gets into the heart of its characters, The Third Wife is a gripping story about a man seeking the truth behind his seemingly perfect marriage and the broken pieces left behind.

My Review: I absolutely adored Jewell's previous book, The House We Grew Up In so I was more than a little eager to read and review her latest book, The Third Wife.  In this book Jewell takes on a mystery and the issues of multiple/extended families.

In her previous books, Jewell was able to hook me from the beginning with her characters and her writing style.  Unfortunately with this book I struggled to connect with Adrian or any of the other characters and there seemed to lack energy in the overall story line. The mystery surrounding his third wife, Maya's death initially was quite interesting and I was eager to find out what had happened to her and who was stalking Adrian but in the end the result was lackluster.  

Then there's the patriarch Adrian.  Oh Adrian.  He's a nice guy.  He has good relationships with his ex-wives.  His life seems pretty awesome from the outside but the problem is ... Adrian.  Unfortunately I found that fifty year old Adrian came off as silly and immature with his head in the clouds when it came to how his decisions affected his marriage/former marriages and his children.  It didn't help that his ex-wives, whom I wish had more page time, seemed to indulge his actions.  The Third Wife essentially is Adrian's late in life coming of age story.

This book focuses on the very complicated issue of family.  It was inspiring to read about a multiple divorce family getting along so well without the nastiness between the ex-wives but overall I felt a little let down with this latest book by Jewell.

My Rating: 3/5 stars