Black Widow (Jack Parlabane: Book 7) by Chris Brookmyre

Publisher: Grove Atlantic

Date of Publication: November 1st, 2016

Where the book can be found: Amazon

Series: Jack Parlabane

Quite Ugly One Morning – Book 1

Country of the Blind – Book 2

Boiling a Frog – Book 3

Be My Enemy, Or, Fuck This for a Game of Soldiers – Book 4

Attack Of The Unsinkable Rubber Ducks – Book 5

Dead Girl Walking – Book 6

Black Widow – Book 7

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

Book synopsis:

Diana Jager is clever, strong, and successful, a skilled surgeon and fierce campaigner via her blog about sexism in medicine. Yet it takes only hours for her life to crumble when her personal details are released on the internet as revenge for her writing.
 
Then Diana meets Peter. He is kind, generous, and knows nothing about her past—the second chance she’s been waiting for. Within six months, they are married. Within six more, Peter is dead in a road accident, a nightmare end to their fairy-tale romance. But Peter’s sister doesn’t believe in fairy tales, and tasks rogue reporter Jack Parlabane with discovering the dark truth behind the woman the media is calling the Black Widow.
 
Still on the mend from a turbulent divorce, Jack’s investigation into matters of the heart takes him to hidden places no one should ever have to go.

My review:

This is a book where I had to struggle through the first couple of chapters. I was left wondering, did Diana do it? The book begins at a trial, and the author goes between the 1st person and 3rd person.

Diana Jager’s character was a hard one to like and to sympathize with. Her childhood is less than perfect, and her adulthood hasn’t been any better. She wrote a blog that called out Scottish surgeons for sexism in the hospital. Then her life came apart when she was hacked by hospital IT guys, and her personal information was leaked. She is let go from her job and immediately got a new one in Inverness….where she meets Peter.

I didn’t like Peter from the get-go either. He came across as too naive and too nice. Usually, that isn’t an issue, but it bothered me (and I am glad that it did). Plus, he was too secretive with Diana.

Add in Jack’s storyline, and I got a mystery that will kept me absorbed until the end of the book.

I usually don’t like it when the author switches between points of view. But in this case, it worked with how the story is being told. While it gives the impression of jumping around, it doesn’t. While it gives the impression of jumping around, it doesn’t.

The author did a great job of keeping a bunch of things hidden until the end. The ending messed with my mind because what I thought was true ended up not being authentic and it screwed with me.

How many stars will I give Black Widow? 5

Why? This is a genuine whodunit with false leads, red herrings and dead ends masterfully woven into the tale. The fact that this is the 7th book in the series isn’t even a point with me because this is a totally standalone book.

Will I reread this book? Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends? Yes

Age Range: Adult

Why? Sexual situations, some language

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**