I couldn't connect with any of the characters in this story so did not finish it, I didn't think it was fair to leave a constructive review at this time.

Omg......... this book was amazing I flew threw the pages with Olympic speed I was hooked from the very first page. I found it full of twists and turns threw out and it kept me on the edge of my seat all the way threw  I would defiantly recommend this book if you like a good book to keep you reading threw the night hopefully you enjoy it as much as I did

I've just discovered that I had this book twice and have previously sent a review in for it.

Great series of books, well worth reading.

This is book 7 in the acclaimed Jack Parlabase series. A gripping story which can be read as a standalone.

Diana Jager is the daughter of a successful surgeon she has two younger brothers, her mother is also a qualified doctor. Once married it was decided her mother would stay at home look after the children and be the homemaker.
Her father had big expectations for his sons but it was Diana who became a surgeon which disappointed him. Every time she got a foot up the ladder it was another kick in the gut for him. This pushed Diana on to be the best.
Although as a surgeon she is very successful her personal life isn’t so successful in fact it was the opposite she was a woman working in a mans world as a release she started a blog. Sexism in Surgery where she becomes known as Bladebitch.
In her blog she uses it to address things she’s unable to in life, some of her blogs are really nasty not actually naming names but making it known who she is venting about, the IT staff are especially a target for her.
After a particularly bad blog someone decides to find out who Bladebitch is and when they find out they expose her that’s when she starts getting threats including death threats so she moves away that’s when she meets Peter they fall in love and get married. After a few months things change then one night Peter leaves home a witness sees his car being driven over a cliff. They find his car but there’s no sign of Peter.
Where is Peter? Has Diana done the unthinkable?
The book starts and She is in court fighting for her freedom. How will it end?
Brilliant read this was my first Chris Brookmyre book definitely won’t be my last.

Plot

Diana Jager is very vocal on the issue of sexism in the medical industry. At least, she was, under a pen name until she’s outed by the IT technicians she writes scathingly about. A few years later she’s still a surgeon but flying under the radar of her previous anonymous “Scalpel Girl” identity. She meets Peter in the hospital, an IT technician, marries him within 6 months. And 6 months later he’s dead in a suspicious looking car accident, or at least Peter’s sister Lucy thinks so. Told partly through the eyes of disgraced reporter Jack Parlabane, you see the story from several angles before the truth is finally revealed.

My thoughts

I love a good crime thriller. These used to be my favourite kind of book for a while, but psychological thrillers slowly took over. Fortunately, this one is a bit of a mix of the two.

Starting with the obvious – Jack Parlabane seems to be a bit of a series of books and I jumped in right in the middle here. Luckily it wasn’t obvious and isn’t necessarily one where you need to have read the previous installments to get what’s going on as enough background info is given.

Diana’s character was brilliant. I loved how she was portrayed as savage and cold, but at the same time you see her as vulnerable – like everyone else. Her words also opened my eyes to the sexism that is there in medicine, which was interesting.

It was a story that kept me guessing, and that’s always a winner in my eyes – I do like to figure out certain elements of stories like this (it makes me feel clever, okay?!), but I also like to be kept in the dark and have the writer confuse me so that the ending is a shock. I’d definitely like to read more Jack Parlabane stories.

I really enjoyed the book, it has everything I love in a novel from start to finish. I can’t wait to read what the author has planned next!

Although this book started slowly I felt like I was unpeeling an onion and thoroughly enjoyed the detail. I particularly liked the use of different voices with no immediate knowledge of who was narrating. This along with excellent writing made this story tantalisingly good. I liked the fact that I had to work for my information - very clever. A well deserved 5 stars

Goodness - what a twisted thriller! Satisfyingly well rounded characters made me stay until the end however and I enjoyed my first meeting with Jack Parlabane although I found some of the parkour and computer wizardry difficult to follow!

Regret that I have decided not to review this title. I didn't like the writing style and found it hard to gel with the characters. Thank you for the opportunity.

Surgeon Diana Jager had courted controversy in the past so when she exiled herself in Aberdeen the last thing she was looked for was romance, and definitely not with a hospital IT worker. However after a whirlwind relationship Diana is married and living with her husband Peter, whilst he tries to develop revolutionary software that will support them both. As time goes by Diana suspects things are not quite as rosy as they could be and when Peter disappears after a row and his car is found in the river, suddenly Diana is in the frame for murder. Asked by Peter's sister to look into the events surrounding this marriage, former investigative journalist Parlabane finds himself intrigued but what he discovers is much more than just the story of a 'black widow'.

It was only after reading reviews of this book in preparation for writing this one that I found out that this book is the latest in a series about Parlabane. I thought the book was a one-off about Diana Jager! It is a testament to the quality of Brookmyre's plotting that this bit of information did not diminish my enjoyment nor cause any confusion by my not knowing any background information. The story is very twisty, set across two timeframes and two narrators. Diana's story is that of an ambitious and emotionally distant woman who has been through the mill and is trying to come out of the other side, believing in true love and seeing the scales moved from her eyes over time. Parlabane is a dogged investigator who smells a rat and doesn't back down. In the end the denouement is somewhat expected but with enough surprise to leave this reader very satisfied

Diane Jager, a talented surgeon lost her job in a prestigious London hospital when her bitchy blog about the treatment of women doctors in the male dominated medical profession was hacked and her identity (and those of some of her colleagues) was exposed. She has fled to Inverness, bitter and hurting to lick her wounds and start again. Despite her intense dislike of IT professionals following her unveiling and the subsequent barrage of hate-mail and on-line comments, Diane finds herself attracted to Peter, a young IT guy employed by her hospital. After a whirlwind courtship, they marry quietly and she looks forward to settling down to family life but within six months her marriage has soured and Peter is dead.

Peter's sister Lucy is not convinced that Peter's death is an accident and asks journalist Jack Parlabane to look into it. The story is told through the alternating voices of Jack and Diane as well as that of a young PC Ali Kazmi who voices her own suspicions. Through those three voices we learn the story of Diane's fall from grace, her whirlwind romance and difficult marriage and the concerns that Jack and Ali have about Peter's 'accident'. Everything is not as it seems and there are a number of twists and turns in the plot that will keep you guessing as the events are viewed from different angles. The suspense builds up gradually and when the big reveal eventually comes at the end of the novel it was certainly not expected by this reader.

This is a well written thriller with great characters (how could you not like a female surgeon nicknamed 'Bitchblade'?). Although it's the seventh in the Jack Parlabane series it works well as a stand alone novel and I'm pleased to have found a new must read series.

This story evolved as I read it with twists and turns and an ending that I did not foresee. An excellent psychological thriller!

I LOVED this book. Great writing, an intriguing storyline and fantastic writing skill that kept me speeding through without ever feeling bored or losing interest. It’s another testament to what a great story this is because it’s a fairly long book compared to others in the genre, clocking in at over 400 pages, but at no point did I start feeling bored or uninterested. It held my attention to the very last page.

Black Widow is the first novel I’ve read by Chris Brookmyre but not having read the others hasn’t impacted my enjoyment (or understanding) of the novel one bit. Firstly, the characters are hugely interesting – not always hugely likeable but there’s something about them that made me want to read more. I really liked Diana Jager despite not knowing throughout the story whether she was guilty or not. She was a strong and independent (although often spiky and, at times, rude) feminist who I really enjoyed reading about. Jack Parlabane was satisfyingly curious and determined to unearth the truth, but I felt like he actually seemed like a secondary character until the end of the story, with Diana and others at the forefront of the book; having not read other novels in the series I’m not sure if Jack always takes a bit of a backseat in the storyline, staying kind of in the background, or if this novel is an exception…

The story itself has plenty of twists and turns, and the different points of view that the reader gets (mainly Diana, some of the police officers, and Jack Parlabane)only adds to the fantastic narrative that really drew me in. There's humour sewn into the pages, too, with some observations and comments by characters striking me as really amusing. It hops back and forward in time, with the trial kicking the novel off and the story then moving backwards to note how things happened the way they did. All the time you’re wondering if things are exactly as they are described by witnesses, people close to Peter, etc, and it’s not until the end, that it’s all tied up – and rather satisfyingly, in my opinion!

I'm so impressed with this book - definitely recommended!

BLACX WIDOW by Chris Brookmyre is a brilliant psychological thriller sure to please many readers. This is the seventh book in the series, and I am ashamed to say that this is my first experience and the first book I have read by this author…but it won’t be my last. I usually always read the books in sequence, and now plan to go back and read the previous books in the series. What an amazing writer! I was silly putty in his hands right from the beginning.

This story told by multiple POV’s, follows the marriage and trial of surgeon Diana Jager charged with murdering her new husband, Peter.

“Diana Jager is clever, strong and successful, a skilled surgeon and fierce campaigner via her blog about sexism. Yet it takes only hours for her life to crumble when her personal details are released on the internet as revenge for her writing.

Then she meets Peter. He's kind, generous, and knows nothing about her past: the second chance she's been waiting for.

Within six months, they are married. Within six more, Peter is dead in a road accident, a nightmare end to their fairytale romance.

But Peter's sister Lucy doesn't believe in fairytales, and tasks maverick reporter Jack Parlabane with discovering the dark truth behind the woman the media is calling Black Widow...”

The novel opens with a trial, and the story moves backward to show how everything came to pass. Disgraced journalist Jack Parlabane gets involved after the dead man’s sister asks him to investigate the death. Lucy has suspicions about Peter’s wife, Diana Jager, and she wants him to see if there is anything more to his death. So, Jack goes digging…

Jager is a brilliant character and is central character in this story with Parlabane actually playing a minor role until the closing chapters. I found myself scurrying in different directions trying to figure out who did it, as the clues are disclosed on a need-to-know basis. So many twists and turns ramps up the suspense level. Then for the climax…the final chapter was WOW!

My thanks to Chris Brookmyre, Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for supplying me with an ARC.

Surgeon Diana Jager has had a troubled past and so when she meets and falls in love with I.T.expert, Peter Elphinstone, she can't believe her luck. A wedding soon follows but it's not long before cracks begin to appear in the marriage. When Peter is killed in a car accident, his sister, Lucy, is convinced there is more to it and engages journalist, Jack Parlabane, to investigate Diana's involvement.

Why have I never discovered this author before?! When I realized that this was the seventh book in the series, I was quite apprehensive as I had not read any of the previous books. From quite early on, however, it became apparent that, although the series is about Jack Parlabane, he would only play a minor role in the book, with the main focus being on what actually happened to Peter Elphinstone. It is not until towards the end of the book that Jack really comes into his own and, although it is clear that he has had problems in his past, a previous knowledge of the character is not essential and, therefore, Black Widow can be read as a standalone.

The story is told, mainly, from the points of view of Jack and Diana and also of the police officers investigating the accident. This is a clever tactic as we get to see the story from all angles and helps to place doubt in your mind as to who is telling the truth. Throughout the book, I didn't really know how I felt about Diana - was she the arrogant surgeon as perceived by her work colleagues or was she really a lonely, vulnerable woman desperate for a family of her own? By the end of the book, I knew the answer...

I love a book with a good twist and Black Widow certainly ticks all the boxes on that count. Although I had my suspicions about what happened, the truth came as a shock and was one that I did not see coming.
Black Widow is highly recommended and, on its strength, I shall be reading the rest of the series as soon as possible!

I haven't read anything by Chris Brookmyre in years but when I saw this had won Crime Novel of the year I thought I should try it. The characters were really well drawn and I found myself manipulated into liking then disliking the same character as the narrative progressed. There were enough twists in the story that even when I thought I had worked out the ending I couldn't be sure. Overall just a cracking great story.

I hadn't realised until finishing this book that it was from a series ... it reads brilliantly as a stand-alone.

I absolutely devoured this book, I loved the characters and the style of writing, the plot and twists of the book were wonderfully woven and although I did guess the outcome before the end of the book it didn't detract from my enjoyment. I will certainly be looking out for more from this author - many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my review copy of this fab book.

A good premise but I found it too long winded for me. Maybe if I have read the others in the serious I would understand the story better. Just an OK read.

Jack Parlabane is a recently divorced, disgraced journalist, trying to get by. Dr Diane Jager is a hard-working surgeon, formally a blogger, colloquially known as Bladebitch for her acerbic rants against sexism in medicine. Peter, her husband, is a geeky IT guy, who goes missing after his car crashes into a freezing river. When Peter's sister suspects foul play, she hires Parlabane to investigate. Told from multiple perspectives, the whole story is unravelled, warts and all, as it turns out no one is as they seem.
I'll preface this by saying I am a big Chris(topher) Brookmyre fan, although not necessarily the Jack Parlabane series. The format of Black Widow starts as a trial, alternating between witness accounts, and the perspective of Parlabane and Jager. At first, I didn't enjoy this, as you are bombarded with information from several character who aren't really relevant to the story. But once Jager takes the stand the story picks up quickly and doesn't let go. It's easy to compare this to Gone Girl, as both feature a "psychopathic" female lead, and contrary stories between them and their significant others. Although, I found Gone Girl slightly more predictable, and I didn't expect the ending of Black Widow.
After the introduction of Mairi Lafferty in Dead Girl Walking I was disappointed that she wasn't in this book, and few of the expanded Parlabane universe are present in this book. However, having read other reviews this may be to help the book as a standalone novel, and in hindsight it makes sense. Whilst I would recommend reading the other Parlabane books as well, Black Widow is definitely worth checking out.