This reading group guide for The Third Wife includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. Once again it is the characters that pop – all beautifully well drawn, absolutely realistic and with a sharp emotional edge that keeps you turning the pages to see what will happen to them. We never learned anything about her as a person who existed away from Adrian or anything about her background. Adrian, still grief-stricken a year on, advertises Maya’s cat, Billie – he feels she needs a new home. I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and fair review.

You’ve got Adrian, a fortysomething with five children between two ex-wives whose life if thrown off-balance when his third wife, Maya, is hit and killed by a bus after a night of uncharacteristic excessive drinking. I'm not sure if it was the slow pace, or the fact that I didn't really connect with many of the character, but I had trouble getting into this one.It’s hard to fathom, anyone could believe in love after two failed marriages, but this guy was convinced, he had finally found the one. I was totally hooked into this family throughout – both of Adrian’s ex wives are wonderful to behold, the children all have their own little quirks and foibles and the emotional resonance of how the adult affairs affect them is insightful and often very sad. The mystery surrounding his wife’s death exposes some hidden unsettledness within the family system, and casts suspicion on the true cause of her demise.

This was more of general fiction of a man trying to come to terms with his third wife’s death and the toll it had on his family and did anything suspicious actually cause her death? It was nice reading about the suburbs around London, and while we read about our protagonist, Adrian, I couldn't help but think how lucky he was two have two very nice ex wives, without a trace of vindictiveness, but as I mentioned this a believable story dealing with issues, mainly divorce and an absent father. Absolutely remarkable writing, that sticks you front and centre of the story as it unfolds, I cannot recommend this highly enough. Then the person, yes, a woman, in red shoes, tutted again and walked away, her heels issuing a mocking clack-clack as she went. But strange things begin to happen to her widower, Adrian, who also happens to have two ex-wives and five children.Things seemed like maybe they could be sinister because he hadn’t been paying attention to warning signs all along. It's also the first book I've read of her's since she crossed over from Chick Lit to Thrillers and maybe the answer is there, rarely do thrillers prove to be memorable 5 star books.

I could just not get into this at all, I found the storyline boring and only continued with the book to see if it did improve, but sadly no it didn't. As Adrian looks back on their brief but seemingly happy marriage, disturbing secrets begin to surface. I know some estranged families can get on but I do believe they are few and far between and most are antagonistic. Not my favorite from Lisa Jewell, but she is still one of my favorite authors and I am glad I was able to circle back to this one and catch it on audio. That was the underlying theme throughout this twisted family drama that kept me enthralled, pretty much until the end.The story orbits around one man, Adrian; a man who’s never been alone once in his entire adult life; a man who comes to the realization that he doesn’t know how to live life all alone, until his third wife passes on. I guess for me Jewell is The Truth about Melody Brown / Thirty Nothing etc etc, I'm just not overly convinced of the genre switch just yet. I was intrigued to find out who 'Jane' was and her purpose for 'stalking' Adrian but even this became somewhat tedious. When, four years ago, Adrian left Caroline for Maya, he made every effort to keep the family intact—all of them holiday together (three wives, five children) and happily share custody.