Character development is very dependent on this fluctuation from the present to the past with vital character detail filled in along the way. This is a story that unfolds very smoothly and we are transitioned from the present to the past incredibly easily. 'The waves and salty air had stained the walls of the building pale green, and its roof was Jackson Pollocked with bird shit.” White is very good at creating vivid imagery with a commendable turn of phrase: The bitter weather adds to a constant feel of menace that hangs over every scene. The atmosphere is dark and oppressive, fuelled by the winter off-season which has left the island half-deserted and quiet. She begins to put together snippets of information that leads her to believe she has an idea about who might have killed her husband.

Wrapped up in her grief and confusion, Kate picks up on a few pieces of information that just don’t sit right and commences her own investigation. They’re unprepared for the phone call from the police asking them to come down to identify a body. They believe it must have been John who has come to the island to take some time for himself. They’re there because the security alarm in their holiday home had been triggered. The police have little to go on in the way of suspects or evidence.Īlready on the island are Kate and her father-in-law Fisher. The plot…yeah, we’re not going to reveal too much about that here apart from the basics.Ī man is murdered on the island of Belport. She does unearth a few unsettling snippets about her husband that has her doubting him. Her story is told at a slower pace as she appears to be living the ideal, normal life even if it may appear to be boring - and if you discount the fact that she's an amateur taxidermist. She soon learns she didn’t quite know her husband as well as she thought.Ībby Gilpin lives on the island of Belport with her husband and 2 teenage kids. The second jolt hits after she calls his office only to find out he hasn’t worked with the company for a couple of months. When he doesn’t appear the first sense of unease ripples through her body. Kate Keddie waits at the airport with her young daughter in the expectation that John, her husband, will be walking through the Arrivals doors after a working trip to London.

They do…but certainly not in the way I was expecting. The book’s title clues you in fairly heavily that at some point the two women will cross paths. The story is told from alternating perspectives of two women whose fates are foretold by the title of the book. The island is in the off-season and devoid of the tourist horde leaving it quiet and desolate. This is an extremely atmospheric story that embraces the uninviting chill of winter on the small fictional island of Belport in Bass Strait off Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula.

Christian white the wife and the widow