by Sandra Murphy

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of The Widower’s Wife, and a link to order it from Amazon.

We’ve all read the headlines about a young couple on a cruise, and only one comes home. The other seems to have fallen overboard and wasn’t missed right away, so who knows where the accident occurred? Or was it an accident?

Ana Bacon and her husband Tom, cruised to the Bahamas for a short vacation. On the way back, Ana went overboard. That’s not in doubt—cameras picked up her dramatic fall. The question is—was it an accident, a suicide, or murder?

Tom has an alibi. He was at the pool talking to a noticeable redhead at the time. A couple of guys swore to that. Ana hadn’t been depressed. She was newly pregnant and suffering from both morning and motion sickness. Tom says she must have felt ill, leaned over the side to throw up, and then fallen. An accident, pure and simple.

Ryan Monahan is an ex-cop, wounded in the line of duty, and now doing private work. It’s his job to determine if Tom’s tale is true or if it was suicide. After all, a five million dollar life insurance policy plus possible double indemnity, is at stake.

As he learns more about Ana’s life, he has more questions than answers. It doesn’t seem possible Ana would leave her daughter Sophia motherless. There are rumors of spousal abuse but no proof. Tom had been out of work for over a year, leaving the burden of making money to Ana as well as all the household and child duties, and bill collectors were circling. Ryan begins to think murder was possible after all.

The suspense never ends as the book bounces back and forth from August when Ana went overboard to November’s investigation. The characters are finely drawn, the mystery of what happened a good one with red herrings and false clues peppering the story. While readers may pick up on an actual clue here and there, the twists and turns of the story will lead you away from the truth until the reveal.

This is a book sure to make my Top Reads of 2016 List.

To enter to win a copy of The Widower’s Wife, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “wife,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen September 17, 2016. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.

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Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the Arch, in the land of blues, booze and shoes—St Louis, Missouri. While writing magazine articles to support her mystery book habit, she secretly polishes mystery books of her own, hoping, someday, they will see the light of Barnes and Noble and a Kindle. You can find several of Sandra’s short stories at Untreed Reads including her newest, “Arthur,” included in the anthology titled, Flash and Bang, available now. Look for Denali, in the anthology Dogs and Dragons.