The Black Widow: The Catherine Nevin Story

by Niamh O'Connor

The incredible story of the murder which gripped the nation.

Genres: True Crime

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 20, 2000

About the author

Niamh O'Connor is one of Ireland's best known crime authors. She is a crime reporter with the Sunday World, Ireland's biggest selling Sunday newspaper, for whom she has written five true crime books which were given away with the newspaper. Her job, in which she interviews both high profile criminals and their victims means she knows the world she is writing about.

Reviews

[John Naylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

True crime is not a genre I frequent often. This showed both why I don't and why I probably should.

This did contain a lot of details about the case, the perpetrator and other people close to the crime through no fault of their own. It recalls details from long before the crime happened and how Catherine Nevin operated a web of lies which eventually led to her conviction. I appreciated the level of details and research that went into this book. It created a clear picture and timeline to follow.

However, I found the writing to be uninspired and bland in places. There was no excitement in the words and it was hard to emote about any of it. It lacked something that would bring me straight back to the genre. The structure wasn't clear at the beginning either. I can see that making some readers turn away.

I liked this more than I disliked it. I try to vary the genres I read and this genre is one I could possibly get more into.

[Jenny Mulvey · Rating 1 out of 5]

No empathy

The author had lots of facts and details relevant to the Catherine Nevin story. However after reading it, I still have very little understanding of what made Catherine Nevin tick. The author is hostile to Catherine Nevin throughout the book. Perhaps if she had tried to show some understanding or empathy, bazaar as that may sound, the reader might have gained a little more understanding of who Catherine Nevin was: where she came from; what made Catherine Nevin become the person she was. In essence a sense of the person who made the country stand still in disbelief while her trial was on going was missing from this book. It was well researched and a huge amount of work went into writing this book. It fell short on empathy.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written and interesting.

[Ness · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't get into it ....

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn’t finish unfortunately, had to speed read to the end. I found it repetitive and boring. I need a book that I can’t wait to get back to and this wasn’t one of them.

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed with this book, but I picked it up in the sale rail so I cannot complain!

[Mini Grace]

just started