Reviewed by Leah on
First of all, let me ask you to read the synopsis of the novel for me, would you? It’s just above this sentence, right at the top, I’ll wait while you read it. To me that’s a synopsis that promises juicy secrets, and goings-on you couldn’t imagine, and a death that wasn’t exactly as it seemed, so I started reading The Third Wife with pretty high hopes, and the book starts off fantastic. In fact, it’s fantastic for like 95% of the novel, as we’re introduced to the Wolfe family. Adrian Wolfe is quite the man about town (or so it seems – having accrued three wives and five children at the grand old age of forty-eight) but the best bit about all his wives and kids is that they all get along like a house on fire! They take trips together, his daughter Cat, from his first marriage to Susie, lives with his second wife Caroline… It’s like no family you’ve ever met in your life, but it works for them and it works on the page, because they all seem to be so kind and welcoming toward each other. Until Adrian’s third wife, Maya, ends up drunk at 3am in the morning and stumbles in front of a bus, and dies. The cracks start to show, and the secrets and troubles and worries come tumbling out like you wouldn’t believe.
I loved how the narrative swings back and forth between the present day, and the months leading up towards Maya’s death, I liked that it allowed us a glimpse into the psych of Maya, instead of her just being present in that one, opening chapter. And I liked the fact that Maya’s death wasn’t as simple as it seemed, that there were many layers that added up that saw Maya in front of a bus when she really shouldn’t have been and it was actually quite sad to see what Maya goes through. She starts off as this beaming, bright person and by the end, she’s a shell of herself, just like Adrian after Maya’s death. It’s not a particularly complicated novel, but a lot of the characters have issues – I actually quite liked getting to see how Adrian’s whole philosophy of make yourself happy, on all accounts, and the rest will follow, was diminished more and more as the novel went on – his kids weren’t happy, his wives weren’t particularly happy, there were all these things that he was just entirely oblivious to, or that he realised but kept quiet about. His kids are all entirely different, but all have such interesting tales, and quirks and personalities. I preferred Otis of them all, as he was so enigmatic but they were all really likeable.
There are many strands to the novel, and I’m desperate to not give anything away, but the main one is of course what really happened to Maya that night with the bus. And the novel builds and builds and builds and builds the suspense to such a level that you’re dying to know the truth, dying to know who Maya was with the night she died, why she was so drunk, why she died, and I just felt that was where the novel deflated like a busted balloon. Because the big reveal was nothing that wasn’t already mooted – there was no big surprise, no hidden baddy, no moment that makes your heart pound as you realise what you initially thought to be true was false. Maybe I mis-represented the novel – maybe I saw a psychological thriller where there was none, but all the early indicators, all the early narrative, pointed to something not quite right, and I just felt the pay-off wasn’t worth all the build up it was given. It was just like, “Well, yeah we KNEW all of that! Where’s the secret!”. It was just quite deflating for me. The Third Wife was a solid read, absolutely solid, Lisa Jewell knows her stuff, I was just the teensiest bit disappointed with the ending, but apart from that it was excellent as usual, and everything you expect from a Lisa Jewell book!
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 11 June, 2014: Finished reading
- 11 June, 2014: Reviewed