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Sometimes, we discover that a person we thought we knew has been hiding something important. In author Jeff Abbott’s An Ambush of Widows, two new widows discover that they didn’t know everything about the men they loved—and those secrets could put their lives in danger, too.
The story begins when Kirsten North gets a mysterious call that her husband, Henry, is dead—that he’s been shot in Austin, Texas, even though he was supposed to be on a business trip to New York. Kirsten catches the first flight to Austin and discovers that the caller was correct: Henry was killed in a warehouse along with successful venture capitalist Adam Zhang. Determined to find the killer and make him (or her) pay, Kirsten calls in her foster brother, Zach, and connects with Adam’s widow, Flora, to help her search for answers.
As Kirsten starts digging into the connections between Henry and Adam, though, she runs into more questions than answers. Both men were keeping secrets, but she can’t seem to figure out how they were connected, why they were meeting together, or why it got them both killed. It’s easy to suspect Flora—especially after it turns out that Adam was having an affair—but nothing about this mystery is particularly easy, and none of the characters are quite what they seem.
Kirsten, especially, seems like her own mystery. While the author takes a break from the action to explore her history, her development feels incomplete. There’s very little about what happened between high school the present day—and definitely not enough to help readers understand Kirsten’s personality and motivation. She seems determined to track down and kill the man who murdered her husband, but there’s really nothing in her past that suggests that this is the kind of person she is. The same is true for Flora Zhang. Both characters are given some background, but neither is developed enough to give readers a solid feel for who these women are and what they’re capable of doing.
As the clues start coming together, the answers turn out to be even more complicated—and more oddly twisted—than expected. Though it doesn’t feel entirely plausible, gradually, these two widows eventually come together to tie up the loose ends.
An Ambush of Widows certainly isn’t a flawless mystery. Important parts of the story—and the development—seem lacking. But, through the action, the characters seem to grow and become stronger——and their newfound connection may be enough to leave readers interested in finding out what’s next for these two emboldened women.
Listen to the review on Shelf Discovery:
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