“The Woman Inside” follows Bill Olsson, a recently widowed man, who is struggling financially to keep a roof over his daughter’s head and decides to rent out her bedroom to local law student and aspiring judge Karla, in order to help with expenses. Karla works part-time as a house cleaner for Steve and Regina Rytter, a very wealthy couple who we learn pretty early on in the book have been murdered.
Through a series of interviews with local law enforcement and story told from multiple viewpoints between Bill, Karla, and Jennica (a woman who starts dating Steve after meeting through a dating app), we start to get a picture of the fractured life of the Rytters and the strange dynamics at play between Steve and his wife. Karla learns early on that Steve is controlling and obsessive, and she begins to doubt his true intentions with his sickly wife. Meanwhile, we learn that Steve is out and dating while his “sick” wife remains under lock and key at home; meanwhile, Jennica - Steve’s new interest - has no idea he’s married and begins to develop major feelings for him.
Tensions are brought to a head when Karla confronts Regina and unloads her suspicions about Steve. The events that follow are shocking but readers are finally able to piece together the pieces of the murder of the wealthy couple.
I found several of the characters were hard to connect with; the only one I really felt for was Karla who was struggling with her own familial trauma and turmoil with her addict mother, and then making lasting connections with classmates in law school. I wanted to dislike Jennica because she was complicit in the affair with Steve (granted, she didn’t find out about Regina until the very end - but still) and she was literally falling in love with the villain of this story (and not in a good way!) Bill’s wallowing and grief might have been forgivable, but it began to jeopardize the well-being of his daughter and his ability to provide for her.
“The Woman Inside” is a thrilling, page-turner of a mystery that culminates in a double-murder and with a killer you won’t anticipate. Although the writing and characters left much to be desired, the general plot/story captivated me enough to want to find out who killed the Rytters!
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