Member Reviews

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were very well written to the point that I really cared about them. Bill is a widower who has recently lost his wife to cancer. It is just him and his young daughter now. He has no steady income and rents a room to a law student, Karla, to make ends meet. It works out quite well. Karla supplements her income by working for a cleaning service. Her latest assignment is cleaning twice a week for a wealthy couple. The wife is ill and never leaves the house. The husband is a physician with a girlfriend. Even though that scenario is one that we have all read - there are twists and turns to make the book different and interesting.
I look forward to reading a earlier book by this author A Nearly Normal Family.

I gave this book a solid 4 stars. Thank you to Net Galley for sending me an advance reader's copy!

Was this review helpful?

I have been fortunate enough to read M. T. Edvardsson before and enjoyed that read, so I was especially pleased to be given the opportunity to read this ARC of The Woman Inside.
The writing style is the same, which is unique, and I enjoy it. The story plot held my interest throughout the book, and the ending was very satisfying for this reader.
Thank you #NetGalley and M. T. Edvardsson #TheWomanInside for the opportunity to read and review this book. I would recommend this for all mystery readers!

Was this review helpful?

I thought that this would be another gaslighting, evil husband with a suffering wife. Surprised that it was so much more. Each of the many characters was evil in their own way and quite unlikeable I have to admit that I scrolled to the end and then back again to fill in the rest. I’d love to read more books by this author!

Was this review helpful?

I'm not going to provide a summary of the novel, as others will do that. I thought it opened strong, and felt I'd found quite the page turner, with some interesting characters. Things changed, however, as things began to drag, and became repetitive. With such unlikable characters, I didn't really care who was blamed for the crime. Then things picked up again, and, I was again flipping pages toward a rather surprising ending.

Was this review helpful?

I was super excited to have won this book! Thank you Goodreads, Celadon and Macmillian Publishers for the hard copy of this book and Netgalley for the ARC digital copy.
This is a first from this author and recommended to read his first novel A Nearly Normal Family. Excited about the cover and how this Nordic mystery was designed into interrogations, newspaper articles and how with each new evidence proposed a new direction to solve the crime scene.

The crime scene consisted of a wealthy couple found murdered in their expansive and immaculate mansion. Investigated was their newly hired maid Karla. She is a struggling law student with high hopes of being a judge one day. She raised herself while looking after her drug addict mom. The dorm rooms are considered a party scene so she decided to look for a place off campus. What she finds is single father struggling to raise his daughter Sally and make ends meet. Under the circumstances, I pitied him for his difficulties and sympathized for Sally, but his ignorance and choices impedes his growth. He makes some bad decisions after Karla rents a room in his place to help him financially and her economically. Karla pities him, so while working for the wealthy Rytters' couple she takes jewelry from them and gives it to Bill to sell. Bill is also investigated for this crime as well as a character Jennica, who also finds herself wrapped up into the Rytters' situation.
The Rytter family has their own secrets. Before their death, Karla observes Regina Rytters in a desperate situation and being drugged by her husband. She is unable to leave her house due to his controlling and obsessive behavior. There is so much more to his demeanor than meets the eye. He is not a likeable character and Regina fears she will one day be killed by him.
A great mystery to solve and the typical page-turning thriller consists of another maid that knows all their secrets.

Was this review helpful?

4 main characters with a handful of supporting people. Each person represented different choices and outcomes. The ending wrapped everything up, BUT I think the male character's last scene was suspicious.

Was this review helpful?

•Quick Description•
Who dunnit?
POV and police interviews
Affairs
Sick wives
Colliding lives

•Rating•
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars
I recommend this read!

•Review•
I really enjoyed the way the story was told. It was by 3 different points of view of the weeks/days leading up to the crime. Plus, police interviews conducted after the crime. It was an easy read. No big twists, but I still really enjoyed it!

•Similar Recommended Reads•
Look Closer
Things We Do in the Dark
Local Woman Missing

Was this review helpful?

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book for my honest review.
Karla wants to overcome her past and become a judge she has to take a cleaning job to make ends meet as she goes to school. She finds a place she can rent a room from a man and his young daughter who are grieving the loss of his wife. The place she cleans is a mansion where a pediatrician and his wife who is very sick live. So much changes from this point involving several people. This book is out there but draws you in and you want to know what happens to each of them.

Was this review helpful?

This book was a page turner. It kept me wanting to keep reading until I could find out what happened. A couple is murdered, and until the end, everyone is the suspect. It was hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys and the writing style was very enjoyable. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange, my honest review.

Was this review helpful?

The Woman Inside by M.T. Edvardsson was a thriller, mystery, or that was what I thought it was going to be. I love a good thriller mystery and was very curious about this one. Steven and Regina Rytter a very wealthy couple that live in a beautiful home. Steven is a doctor with a resume a mile long, his wife Regina comes from a very well to do family and highly respected family. All is fine until Regina comes down with a crazy illness that has her locked up in her bedroom and she is hardly able to function.. Is her dashing doctor husband behind this mystery illness, or is he the dutiful loving husband..
Then there is Bill Olsson a loving father to Sally who has just lost the love of his life Miranda.. Bill struggles to keep a roof over Sally's head and food on their table. Bill is running out of options as the bill collectors are banging on his door. Enter Karla who ends up renting a room in Bill's apartment as she studies to get into the law. Then there is Jennica a young women who is lost in life. She is a student but doesn't want to be. She takes a job talking to people about their life problems and she is also on dating apps. How are these people all connected to the murder of Steven and Regina Rytter? I was curious in finding out so I dove into the book.

So we find out Karla is a house cleaner for the Rytter's. Karla came from a house of drug abuse. As a young child Karla took care of her mother who was always on the verge of an overdose. Karla did many things many not so legal things to save her mother until she had enough and left to make something of herself. So why does Regina Rytter state of being knock Karla to her core? Karla is connected to Bill because of her renting a room from him. She gets tangled in Bill's problems and the next thing you know Karla is on the verge of losing everything she has fought for because of Bill and his daughter Sally. Then we have Jennica the way-wood young woman who is having an affair with Steven. Not knowing that his wife is still alive because Steven has lied to her, Jennica is not happy at all. Could any of these characters commit murder? Or was Steven and Regina Rytter not as innocent as they made people believe?

Out of all the characters in this book I felt Karla was the most developed. You knew the background she came from,the mother she was conflicted with. How she want a better life for herself and yet getting tangled up with Bill sort of brought her back to her childhood. She couldn't get out of her own way. Bill's character annoyed me a little. He never fully grew, even having a daughter to care for didn't give him the big push he needed to help himself. He just tried to find and easy way out of things. i sometimes felt Sally was more of a grownup then him. He also tended to be whinny. Jennica has some personality. I wished there was more to her. I also felt the story dragged a bit. I did like the idea behind the story that is why i had to finish it. Overall I did enjoy it and I would recommend it to my fellow readers. I also would read more from M.T. Edvardsson.

Thank youNetGalley and Cleadon Books for the ARC. I would give this book 3.5 stars. Very interesting concept,with decent characters.

Was this review helpful?

The Woman Inside by M. T. Edvardsson is the best kind of slow burn!

What a wonderful book. Great writing craft. The story is a slow burn and told in several different voices.
The characters are wonderfully flawed, the story is unpredictable.
The engrossing plot is dark and disturbing. And the authors writing has once again pulled me in so quickly I didn’t want it end.
M. T. Edvardsson has done it again in writing a marvelous book with such wonderful and creepy storytelling.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Thank You NetGalley and Celadon Books Publishing for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Was this review helpful?

Bill has recently lost his wife, and is having trouble making ends meet for him and his daughter Sally. He decides his only option is to take a lodger into their home. Karla is cleaning homes and working hard at school to someday be a judge. Things seem off at the house she cleans however. The wife is ill and rarely leaves her bed and her husband seems obsessive about them not talking. When the couple ends up dead, everyone is a suspect.

3.5 Stars. Ok. I have to start by again sharing my love for A Nearly Normal Family. I freaking LOVED that book. It was one of my top reads of the year in 2019. So needless to say, when I saw M.T. Edvardsson had a new book coming out, I knew I needed to get my hands on it asap. All of that makes this even harder to say. I enjoyed this book. I really did like the story, and if it wasn’t having to live up to A Nearly Normal Family, I wouldn’t feel so dissapointed. However, A Nearly Normal Family this book was not. It felt like something I had read before, and while that isn’t a bad thing, I just had higher expectations for it. I would still recommend this book, just set your expectations appropriately.

Was this review helpful?

An interesting slow burn thriller. Five people's lives intersect over the years, two of them ended up dead but who killed them and why. well written, easy to read, I got involved right away in the different perspectives on what really happened. 4.5

Was this review helpful?

It felt a little rote - a standard list of “this is the time to drop x hint, a couple chapters later reveal y secret, a predictable amount of time later pull z twist.” An okay story but uninteresting characters. And, some mystery reveals that felt missing at the end (and not in a deliberate way, more like they were just forgotten about). Regardless, solid overall.

Was this review helpful?

The Woman Inside A Novelby M. T. Edvardsson was a good read. I love a Nordic setting, and this did not disappoint. The alternating veiwpoints were written well, and the characters were all pretty interesting, if not wholly likeable, which is fine with me. A fun read and kept me interested. Thanks to Netgalley an the publisher for an advance copy.

Was this review helpful?

This book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review. Thanks to the publisher and the author. Written by a talented and gifted writer, this is a suspenseful story. The characters are realistic, and they would make great television actors. This fiction reads like nonfiction at times. This author captivated me from page one. This is a cannot put down novel. Enjoy

Was this review helpful?

This book is awesome! It involves eight people (2 couples, a housecleaner, and an 8-year-old girl) who are inexplicably tied together in complicated and crazy-dark ways that none of them could have predicted! Karla is a housecleaner for Steven and his sick wife, Regina. Bill lost his wife, Miranda to cancer, and he's the single parent to Sally. That's all you need; their lives become intertwined in plots of extortion, blackmail, and illness that you couldn't have predicted in your wildest dreams! Another head-spinner that I loved!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Was this review helpful?

The premise of the book was interesting. It was just a little slow and drawn out for me. It wasn’t really a thriller. I didn’t not like it, I just didn’t love it. Which I think is more about me than the author. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced free copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Was this review helpful?

Compelled to finish but wasn't overly satisfied, I found the characters in The Woman Inside to be incredibly annoying. Didn't/couldn't root for any of them. Selfish, bad choices and mired in inertia, no thanks. The author does do a nice job of weaving seemingly disparate threads together, although I would've appreciated more insight into Gina/Regina. All of the sudden, she turns lethal? Goodness gracious, I hope I never meet these people!

P. S. Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC.

Was this review helpful?

Good thriller. I had a bit of trouble keeping the 4 main characters straight in the beginning, but then the interactions were twisty and I was very happy with how it ended.

Was this review helpful?