Black Widows by Cate Quinn takes place in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is told from the POV of characters of Rachel the first wife and her sister wives, Tina and Emily who are in a polygamist relationship with salesman Blake Nelson. Blake is found murdered having been choked out, his face has been battered, and he his two fingers is missing. The question is, which three of his wives did it?
It’s been a really long time since I’ve read a proper thriller. Before I fell in love with the fantasy genre, thrillers were all I read. I began to become bored with the unoriginal plots and the repetitiveness of the books I had read. However, thankfully Black Widows managed to be a highly enjoyable and fresh thriller that really grabbed me. It was highly entertaining as each of the wives race against time to clear their name while also attempt to find who killed Blake and which one of the wives did it.
What made it even more fun was how Cate Quinn does incredibly well in making you think you know who did it then misdirecting you out of nowhere! This made it so much more intense and at the end of many chapters I was like 😱.
I also found all of the characters really interesting and complex. I enjoyed how effortlessly the story flowed from Rachel to Emily to Tina. Many have complex backstorys which really bring to fruition as to why they’ve gotten themselves in the situation they are in. I would say my favourites were Tina and Rachel as I feel their personalities were more interesting. Tina was hilarious and I loved her infatuation with Cagney and Lacey. She soon becomes a self entitled detective who wants to solve Blake’s murder. I can’t really say much about Rachel because it would instantly spoil the story, but yeah she has been through a looooot. There are so many twists and secrets uncovered about the characters which I never expected.
In terms of the writing it was great. Everything flowed perfectly and even though there were three characters, each had distinct personalities that made it easy to not forget them. The chapters were also incredibly suspenseful switching from character to character as we slowly discover their secrets, truths, and lies. The twists and turns had my head spinning and I didn’t once expect it to end the way it did.
Overall, a really enjoyable thriller that has got me back to enjoying the thriller genre. Cate Quinn is a fantastic writer and really grabbed me with her writing and characterization. Each of the three women were so so interesting and really surprised me in many ways.
AdeelReads 