The Third Wife - Lisa Jewell

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…



I was excited to start this book by an author that I really like.  It started well telling the story of Adrian and his mixed bag of family from 3 wives.  It focused on his current situation and the story leading up to the suspicious death of his 3rd wife.

I wasn't enamoured with the central character, Adrian, and didn't get the attraction all these women felt for him nor the loyalty they all still had for him.  The paths of suspicion that the author tried to lead us down were quite interesting, but the most interesting ones were just red herrings to plump out the story a bit.

I was not satisfied with the explanation of Maya's death as many aspects of the story just did not add up.

Don't let my review put you off this author as a whole, just pick a different one of her books to read. 2 out of 5.