The Widower's Wife: A Thriller
Read The Widower's Wife: A Thriller Online
Authors: Cate Holahan
Tags: #FIC030000 Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense, #Thrillers, #Women Sleuths, #Suspense, #Fiction, #General, #Mystery & Detective
The Widower's Wife: A Thriller
Cate Holahan
Crooked Lane Books (2016)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Women Sleuths, General, Thrillers, Suspense, FIC030000 Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
Fictionttt Mystery & Detectivettt Women Sleuthsttt Generalttt Thrillersttt Suspensettt FIC030000 Fiction / Thrillers / Suspensettt
"One of those rare thrillers that really will keep you reading all night."
--
Kirkus starred review
"In this chilling cat-and-mouse tale... Holahan keeps the action going."
--
Publishers Weekly
**
Ana Bacon, a beautiful young wife and mother, tumbled off a cruise ship into dark and deadly waters. Ana is gone--leaving behind her wealthy husband and adorable daughter--but not everything about her disappearance adds up. What secrets did she leave behind?
Investigator Ryan Monahan is a numbers man. So when his company sends him the Bacon case, which could net a ten-million-dollar payout, Monahan doubts that her death is just a tragic accident. But the husband has a substantial alibi and a number of witnesses claim to have seen Ana fall, and the official ruling seems to hold up.
Still, the more Monahan uncovers about Ana’s life, the more he realizes how many people would kill to keep her secrets hidden. And the closer he gets to the truth, the greater the odds grow that he, too, will take a fatal fall.
**
Review
Praise for
The Widower's Wife
:
"One of those rare thrillers that really will keep you reading all night."
--
Kirkus
starred review
"Holahan once again creates a compelling heroine who can tap into bottomless reserves of strength when push comes to shove. A fast read for domestic-suspense fans."
--
Booklist
"In this chilling cat-and-mouse tale...Holahan keeps the action going."
--
Publishers Weekly
"Ryan Monahan is so intriguing that readers will be anxious to read about his further adventures."
--
RT Book Reviews
"A terrific mystery."
--
Book Reporter
"The contrasting perspectives give the reader an all-encompassing knowledge of the situation, which tends to keep the pages turning...
The Widower’s Wife
is a great tale for late summer beach reading."
--
Noir Journal
"The suspense never ends... The characters are finely drawn, the mystery of what happened a good one... This is a book sure to make my Top Reads of 2016 List."
--
Kings River Life
"This book is one of the year’s better thrillers...certainly one of the most original!"
--
Popular Culture Association
“Ingenious and engrossing.
The Widower's Wife
is a twisting,
Gone Girl
-esque thriller full of lies and secrets that kept me delightfully off balance right to the end. Cate Holahan is a star on the rise.”
--Brad Parks, Shamus, Nero, and Lefty Award-winning author of
The Fraud
Praise for Cate Holahan's
Dark Turns
:
"Journalist Holahan’s debut will appeal to fans of precocious teen conspiracies like Sara Shepard’s Pretty Little Liars series, as well as to fans of grown-up, plucky-heroine-must-fight-for-herself thrillers."
--
Booklist
“Holahan nails the preppy ambience, the cliques, the conspicuous consumption, and the coltish beauties such as golden girl Aubrey Byrne... [in] this
Black Swan
pas de deux with Tartt’s
The Secret History
.”
--
Publishers Weekly
"A simply riveting read from beginning to end,
Dark Turns
aptly demonstrates the impressive storytelling talents of author Cate Holahan."
--
Midwest Book Review
"A skillfully developed whodunit."
--
Popular Culture Association
"In this twisting
danse macabre
of jealousy, obsession, vanity, and revenge, Cate Holahan gives more than a superb debut performance.
Dark Turns
provides a master class in murder."
--Jan Coffey,
USA Today
bestselling author of
Trust Me Once
"Cate Holahan's debut novel,
Dark Turns
, reads like a mash-up of
Black Swan
and a particularly juicy episode of
Gossip Girl
."
--Charles Dubow,
IndieBound
bestselling author of
Indiscretion
From the Inside Flap
"One of those rare thrillers that really will keep you reading all night."
--
Kirkus starred review
"In this chilling cat-and-mouse tale... Holahan keeps the action going."
--
Publishers Weekly
**
Ana Bacon, a beautiful young wife and mother, tumbled off a cruise ship into dark and deadly waters. Ana is gone--leaving behind her wealthy husband and adorable daughter--but not everything about her disappearance adds up. What secrets did she leave behind?
Investigator Ryan Monahan is a numbers man. So when his company sends him the Bacon case, which could net a ten-million-dollar payout, Monahan doubts that her death is just a tragic accident. But the husband has a substantial alibi and a number of witnesses claim to have seen Ana fall, and the official ruling seems to hold up.
Still, the more Monahan uncovers about Ana’s life, the more he realizes how many people would kill to keep her secrets hidden. And the closer he gets to the truth, the greater the odds grow that he, too, will take a fatal fall.
The Widower’s Wife
Also by Cate Holahan:
Dark Turns
The Widower’s Wife
A Thriller
Cate Holahan
NEW
YORK
This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, organizations, places, and events portrayed in this novel either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real or actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Cate Holahan
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crooked Lane Books, an imprint of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Crooked Lane Books and its logo are trademarks of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication data available upon request.
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-62953-765-8
ISBN (ePub): 978-1-62953-778-8
ISBN (Kindle): 978-1-62953-779-5
ISBN (ePDF): 978-1-62953-780-1
Cover design by Jennifer Canzone
Crooked Lane Books
34 West 27
th
St., 10
th
Floor
New York, NY 10001
First Edition: August 2016
For Poppy
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Acknowledgments
Term life
An insurance policy that provides protection for a limited period of time.
November 16
R
yan Monahan liked liars. Not the three-times-a-conversation fibbers, who prettied up the truth to appear less pedestrian at parties and would swear to God they’d had
just one
,
Officer
. Those average assholes weren’t even trying. No, Ryan liked the real deal, the kind of folks who weaved falsehoods into the very fabric of their lives until they wore their fictions like fine-knit sweaters, feeling safe and warm, wrapped in their bullshit. They were the challenge.
He didn’t yet know if Tom Bacon was his kind of liar. But the man was definitely hiding something.
Tom hadn’t invited him inside his French-styled starter castle, despite the unseasonably cold weather. Instead, the guy had greeted him on the driveway apron wearing a ski jacket. He’d carried a shovel in one gloved hand, a bucket of salt in the other, neither of which he’d set down for a handshake. Ryan had lingered at the curb after introductions, watching Tom spread ice melt over slush, waiting for a welcome indoors while Mother Nature’s slick hand probed beneath the back vent in his pea coat.
Tom had asked about the death benefit as though it were a fait accompli, as though Ryan might have popped by to deliver a jackpot-sized certified check. No need for a discussion. Certainly no reason for Mr. Bacon to explain how his healthy, thirty-one-year-old wife had suffered a fatal accident on a cruise. Ryan had suggested that they’d both be more comfortable inside.
