Will forever be baffled how this book was depicted as a thriller and suspense novel. There is an underlying mystery about Adrian Wolfe’s third wife, Maya. But it’s beyond boring when all is revealed. And I swear the way the book just glosses over kind of the awful things his 5 children acted was so bizarre to me. I just kind of shook my head and wondered what story was Jewell trying to tell? Was it a story cautioning men out there looking to always be the hero and adored? A story about how a supposed nice man was nice, but not really? That families are a mess? I don’t know. I just felt letdown by the whole thing. This was one of Jewell’s earlier books that got re-released with a new cover. I wish I had known that earlier because I would have just passed on this then.
“The Third Wife” starts off with Adrian Wolfe’s third wife, Maya Wolfe, who is drunk and has come to some kind of decision. And then we find out that Maya has died. Somehow she fell in front of a bus and the question of why Maya was out drinking (she wasn’t a big drinker) and who was she with causes angst in Adrian. Several months later we find Adrian trying to give away Maya’s cat (yes people…he is an ass) because it reminds him too much of her. When a mysterious woman named Jane comes to see the cat, she seems to know something about Adrian’s life. And Adrian finds himself drawn to her. And then the book follows Adrian’s attempts to figure out who Jane is and what if anything, caused Maya to feel as if she was not wanted and loved by Adrian and his family.
There are so many characters here and I think outside of wives #1 and #2, we get into everyone’s heads in Adrian’s family. We see how his eldest two children view him. How his youngest three do. And how many of the children are still angry and upset that Adrian left their moms for the next thing and how he and Maya were planning on having a baby.
I think what really baffles me is that no one says a word to Adrian about anything. I felt for Maya about halfway through because we find out something that was going on with her for years apparently while she was married to Adrian. And you really want to say to all parties involved that they need therapy. I felt annoyed by Adrian. How this man just does not see the upset he has caused in two families is baffling to me.
The underlying mystery of Maya and the bus didn’t even seem to be the main focus of the novel after a while. It kind of flits in and flits out. I think Jewell showing us Maya’s point of views before she died kind of took me out of the book a bit. Maybe if we stayed with Adrian and the kids it would have worked better.
The ending was kind of funny to me. I doubt Jewell meant it to be so. But Adrian deciding that he would just store up women’s compliments and stop trying to jump from marriage to marriage with different women made me giggle. I don’t know why, it just felt so fake. Maybe because we have Adrian hitting epiphany’s that did not feel earned at all.