Book Review: A Defiant Woman by Karen E. Olson

Author and editor Karen E. Olson’s career has long defied expectations and experience. While her first series, the Annie Seymour Mysteries, was rooted in her familiarity with newspapers, her subsequent sagas ventured into largely unfamiliar territory. The Tattoo Shop Mysteries were the cutting edge of cozy and featured a Las Vegas-based ink artist/amateur sleuth while her Black Hat thrillers used the tricks and traps of technology to help a middle-aged hacker evade capture. Then, Olson called on her love of Henry VII history for 2024’s An Inconvenient Wife, a modern take on the Tudor dynasty. This March, she returns with a direct sequel to that book—A Defiant Woman.

As the story opens, Kate Parker—billionaire businessman Hank Tudor’s sixth and most recent wife—has left her husband to reinhabit her New York City apartment after surviving a near-deadly shooting that’s left her questioning her loyalties. Undecided about whether or not to sever her marriage to Hank, she is briefly (and platonically) reunited with an old flame, investigative reporter Tommy Seymour, at a local coffee shop. Immediately after, she receives a phone call from Anna (the fourth wife): Hank’s 11-year-old daughter, Lizzie, has gone missing. Then, Kate is stopped in the street by her husband’s attorney, Thomas Cromwell, who informs her that Lizzie is not only missing but quite possibly the victim of a kidnapping. And, just like that, Kate is pulled back into the Tudor orbit.

Nan Tudor—Lizzie’s mother and Hank’s second wife—is also summoned back, but through a series of anonymous texts that demand her cooperation in exchange for Lizzie’s safety. Having fled to Paris eight years ago (where she bore a son in secret under an assumed name), many presume her dead; after all, headless bodies have a habit of turning up around the Tudor household(s). Determined to ensure her estranged daughter’s safety, Nan nevertheless knows that her reappearance could jeopardize the life she has worked so hard to create. Further complicating matters, it appears that somebody has set her up to look like the mastermind behind Lizzie’s disappearance, meaning the consequences could be criminal … or even deadly. After all, Hank and his henchmen have never shied away from administering their own brand of justice.

Olson uses multiple points of view—Kate, Nan, Anna, Lizzie & Catherine (the first wife) among them—to unspool her story, allowing readers a collective awareness that her characters lack. The requisite backstory and sheer volume of personalities might appear off-putting to those who haven’t read the first book, but Olson handles it all deftly, maintaining a brisk pace and blistering plotting. The use of shifting viewpoints and settings (which range from New York City to Martha’s Vineyard and coastal Connecticut) enhance the momentum, as do considerations of who knows what, the suspicions that result, and the strings that are being pulled to create such upheaval. Consequently, Hank Tudor is rendered both vindictive and vulnerable, begging the question: is he the shark or the scapegoat—or both?

Karen E. Olson’s A Defiant Woman is a cutting crime caper that is every bit as good as An Inconvenient Wife—and arguably better. Chock full of admirably steadfast and subversive women who are emboldened by their would-be suppressors rather than kowtowed, the story melds classic traditions with contemporary trappings, its mysteries cleverly informed by real-life history without being beholden to it. Unlike anything else you’re likely to read, the story proves that Olson is as gloriously defiant as her characters. If you lost your head over the first book, prepare to lose it again now. This is fierce, fun entertainment at its best.