THE OTHER MRS JORDAN - A TRUE STORY OF BIGAMY AND BETRAYAL.

THE OTHER MRS JORDAN - A TRUE STORY OF BIGAMY AND BETRAYAL by MARY TURNER THOMSON.

Ex-library stock, this was the 55th book read for my 100+ Reading Challenge.

In April 2006, Mary Turner Thomson received a call that was to blow her life apart. The woman on the other end of the line calmly told her that she and Will Jordan, Mary's husband and the father of her two younger children, had been married for fourteen years and had five children together.


The Other Mrs Jordan is the shocking true story of how one man manipulated an intelligent, independent woman, conning her out of £200,000 and leaving her to bring up the children he originally claimed he was physically incapable of fathering.


It's a story that we all think could never happen to us, but before dismissing her as easily duped and desperate, read how this shameless conman has been doing the same thing to various other women for the last 26 years and how he concocted the most intricate cover stories, claiming to be a CIA agent to explain his frequent mysterious absences. In what is a cautionary tale about the perils of online dating, this book exposes a life-shattering con by an expert charmer. It is also the story of Mary's fight to reclaim her life.
.... Outer back cover.


FIRST SENTENCE (Prologue): It was a Wednesday morning - a damp, grey April day - and my three young children were starting to play up.


MEMORABLE MOMENT (Page 105): I had a doubt lodged in my mind that grew and struggled to be heard from then on - a seedling of reality trying to survive in the shade of thick, thorny, light-sucking bramble bushes.


KEEP IT OR NOT?: Several people have already requested to read this.


I confess, though not a big fan of autobiographies per say, the very idea of bigamy fascinate me. I mean as Husband dearest says one wife is tiring enough but two or three! And I say wives because generally speaking bigamy is the reserve of men.


I started reading this book scratching my head, wondering just how gullible and naive an individual could be but by the end had completely changed my mind.


An alarming  and cautionary true story of how, with the aid of modern technology, a man was able to take advantage of a woman to the degree that her life was literally turned upside down.


Jordan comes across as a charismatic man with great knowledge of people, seemingly loving and attentive but ultimately without any compassion or empathy he is a true sociopath, a 'fictional character' made up to control the people in his life for it was not only women who were taken in by his stories of heroic deeds.


As for Mary herself, I expected her to be a woman of low intelligence, a woman with low self esteem but instead found her to be fairly intelligent, confident and, above all, trusting, the kind of woman who wishes to see the best in people - the perfect prey for a man such as Jordan?


But you know what I found almost as shocking? The part banks and credit card companies played in this ..... already 'maxed out' and unable to meet payments Mary applied for and obtained several more loans. Perhaps not a crime in itself but surely these companies had some kind of moral obligation towards their customers.


A real page turner, it truly amazed me the lengths Jordan would go to to make his story believable, I found The Other Mrs Jordan a frightening yet fascinating read and would urge anyone currently involved or considering online dating OR meeting someone they have 'met' on one of the many social networking sites to read it even if only for the good advice Mary gives in her epilogue.