The Widow’s Watcher

by Eliza Maxwell

Paperback: 286 pages

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (May 29, 2018)

From Eliza Maxwell, the bestselling author of The Unremembered Girl, comes a gripping novel about the mysteries that haunt us and the twists of fate that can unravel them…

Living in the shadow of a decades-old crime that stole his children from him, reclusive Lars Jorgensen is an unlikely savior. But when a stranger walks onto the ice of a frozen Minnesota lake, her intentions are brutally clear, and the old man isn’t about to let her follow through.

Jenna Shaw didn’t ask for Lars’s help, nor does she want it. After he pulls her from the brink, however, Jenna finds her desire to give up challenged by their unlikely friendship. In Jenna, Lars recognizes his last chance for redemption. And in her quest to solve the mysteries of Lars’s past and bring him closure, Jenna may find the way out of her own darkness.

But the truth that waits threatens to shatter it all. When secrets are surrendered and lies are laid bare, Jenna and Lars may find that accepting the past isn’t their greatest challenge. Can they afford the heartbreaking price of forgiveness?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

“They spend their whole lives walking away from you,” the kindergarten teacher had said on her little girl’s first day. “Your job now is to be there when they look back.”

“When the judge said, ‘For better or worse,’ I agreed quick enough.” Lars pinned her with his piercing gaze. “Nobody tells you how bad the worse can get.”

She marveled at his matter-of-factness. Was it an innate part of him, or was this what years and the grinding sands of loss did to a person? Shaped them into something smooth and hard and polished.

Hope was a frightening thing to rekindle. As impossible to control as a wildfire on a dry plain.

No matter how many years go by, the past never really lets you go.” She ran her hands up and down her arms, as if to ward off a chill. “It’s sewn in, like patches on one of my old granny’s quilts. You can run from it all you like, but it’s part of you. Goes where you go.

What exactly is involved in playing knick-knack, paddy-whack anyway? And why does it need to happen on my knee? The old man sounds kind of sketchy.

My Review:

I’m not exactly sure how to classify the genre of this exceptionally poignant and beautifully written book, it was a Contemporary piece with elements of Suspense, but it wasn’t a Thriller. In addition, I also noted considerable Family Drama, Women’s Fiction issues, mental illness, and an unsolved Mystery that spanned thirty years. With a regal wave of my well-manicured hand, I push all that to the side as I have decided I want new categories of Brilliant, Ingeniously Crafted, and Extraordinarily Well-Written.

Eliza Maxwell has word voodoo. I was quickly pulled into a disquieting and often uncomfortable vortex of unresolved issues and unsettling events, and oddly enough, I didn’t want to crawl back out. The characters were many and all were irreparably fractured, some hanging by a thread, and most were not always likable or admirable. Yet by the end of this uncannily insightful and maddeningly paced story, I understood that they had each been existing with and working at living through a long series of harrowing events as best they could, and I adored every single one of them by the time I arrived at the epilogue. I seldom cry but this eloquently evocative tale moved me, my eyes stung with an unusual wetness while my throat burned and felt constricted on several occasions. The storylines were brilliantly crafted, tautly written, and hard to quit as they were fraught with addictive tension and prickling intrigue. Sigh, my abused and bruised coronary muscle needs a rest, I believe I’ll be hitting the TBR for a comedy next.

About the Author

Eliza Maxwell is the author of The Unremembered Girl, The Grave Tender, and The Kinfolk. She writes fiction from her home in Texas, which she shares with her ever-patient husband, two impatient kids, a ridiculous English setter, and a bird named Sarah. An artist and writer, a dedicated introvert, and a British cop-drama addict, she enjoys nothing more than sitting on the front porch with a good cup of coffee.