The Woman Inside: A Novel
The Woman Inside: A Novel book cover

The Woman Inside: A Novel

Hardcover – June 13, 2023

by
Price
$22.10
Publisher
Celadon Books
ISBN-13
978-1250204622

Description

“With The Woman Inside , M. T. Edvardsson has written a super well-composed chamber drama, where the darkness dwells, the desperation grows between the characters and the walls are closing in until you´re caught in the trap.” ―Lars Kepler, #1 internationally bestselling author of The Sandman "Alienation, self-preservation, and hope propel the story toward calamity with unrelenting suspense; highly recommended for fans of psychological thrillers." ―Booklist "In an impressive feat of structural engineering, M.T. Edvardsson knits together the narratives of three characters wrapped up in a murder in a Swedish college town." ―Shelf Awareness "[A] crafty psychological thriller... Readers follow with grim fascination as the book’s all-too-human cast stumbles into tragedy. Mr. Edvardsson, the author of “A Nearly Normal Family” (2018), has structured his unpredictable story in clever ways. Even though we know what’s coming, the conclusion delivers a surprising jolt." ― The Wall Street Journal M. T. Edvardsson is an author and teacher from Trelleborg, Sweden. He is the author of multiple novels, including A Nearly Normal Family , his first published in the United States. He lives with his family in Löddeköpinge, Sweden.

Features & Highlights

  • A wealthy couple ends up murdered in the nicest part of town in this compulsively readable, page-turning thriller from M. T. Edvardsson,
  • The Woman Inside
  • .
  • Bill Olsson, recently widowed, is desperate to provide for his daughter, Sally. Struggling to pay rent, he welcomes a lodger into their home: Karla, a law student and aspiring judge, who works as a housekeeper to make ends meet. Her clients are the Rytters, an incredibly wealthy couple who hide behind closed doors. The wife is ill and hasn’t left the house in months. The husband is controlling and obsessive. Is he just a worried husband, concerned for his wife’s health? Or is there something more sinister at play?As Bill’s situation becomes more dire, Karla is forced to make a difficult choice. And when the Rytters wind up dead, and Karla is pulled in for questioning, she’s made to defend some parts of her past she’d rather not revisit.Every person in
  • The Woman Inside
  • is hiding something, but could any of them really have been driven to kill?

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(75)
★★★★
20%
(50)
★★★
15%
(38)
★★
7%
(18)
★
28%
(69)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Slow burn thriller

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. I was so excited to read another novel by M. T. Edvardsson as I loved his previous book, A Nearly Normal Family, and I was not disappointed.

I found myself picking this book up in any spare moment I had despite finding the cast of characters overall not very likable. Karla was the only character I had real empathy for in the story and was the main reason I kept reaching for the book. I was very invested in her storyline and what would happen to her. I loved the suspense around her visits with the wealthy, sickly, wife she cleaned for and her handsome and elusive husband.

I found Bill to be a very hard character to root for despite the tragedy that he had experienced. I wanted him to just get his life together and be a responsible adult for his daughter who was depending on him.

Overall, I would describe this as more of a slow-burn, domestic drama and not an edge of your seat thriller but I enjoyed it and will definitely be looking to read more from this author in the future.
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Quick Binge

Almost a 5-star read, but I wanted more of an explanation with the ending! I just want one chapter from Steven or Regina's POV to explain their relationship and what was really going on. I really enjoyed all the characters and how their stories came together. Jennica wasn't very likable and I didn't feel sorry for Bill at all, but I liked Karla and felt bad for her.

It was a quick read with short chapters and I liked the interrogation chapters throughout. Even though I wasn't satisfied with the ending, I recommend this one. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital copy!
✓ Verified Purchase

Average Read

Overall, I would say that this was an average read for me.

The biggest thing for me was the characters--they were flat, one-dimensional, not very deep at all. While every book doesn't have to be character-driven, I felt as though the author could have fleshed the characters out so much more in this story. So because that was missing for me, it made it harder for me to really delve into this story.

A part of me liked that this was a quick and easy read. However, it was also a rather predictable read for me, and that's coming from someone who doesn't typically gravitate towards this genre. It'd not always a bad thing for a reader to predict the ending (which I did); however, if I guess correctly, I personally like there to be some element of surprise elsewhere (for example, how we get to said ending).

Anyway, I just wanted more from this story. Hopefully others who read it will enjoy it!
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Psychological Thriller

This one started off super promising. There are a lot of characters to keep up with and that made me nervous at first, but I was so hooked by the plot that it really didn't bother me. This one is an easy binge-read. I couldn't put it down because I had to know what happened. I formed so many different theories while reading because there were so many ways it could have gone. Which brings us to the ending. This is where it kind of lost me. The ending was very underwhelming compared to the rest of the story. It may have been intentional to leave things kind of open in regards to Steven and Regina (in order for the reader to form their own opinions about them), but I think further character development of both (especially Regina) would have sold the ending more. Overall, it was still a solid read, but it didn't really blow me away.
✓ Verified Purchase

ok thriller

The Woman Inside is an intriguing mystery book about the death of a rich couple. It follows their maid and the person she lives with, a father named Bill Olsson. I was really confused by the point of him at first. I haven't read this author's other book A Nearly Normal Family, but I liked the writing style and different point of views. This helped me learn the roles of the different characters. Karla is a maid for the Rytters, the rich couple that gets killed, but while working for them she lives with Bill and his daughter Sally to help him pay rent. However there's sinister things going on at the Rytter's house and Sally and Bill get roped in as they try to get money. As far as thrillers go, this didn't feel like anything special. No twists jumped out at me. But it was an entertaining enough read. It's almost 400 pages but felt like a quick read to me.

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