A Reliable Wife - by Robert Goolrick
I liked this book. It was a very different kind of book than I normally read, first it was written by a man (I have noticed I tend to favour female authors - not sure why exactly - but the books are written so differently).
On the back cover:
Set in a small Wisconsin farming and manufacturing town still crumbling a decade after the great depression of the 1890-s, this is the story of Ralph Truitt, a wealthy businessman who advertises for "a reliable wife" in newspapers across America.
The woman whom he chooses, Catherine Land, describes herself as "a simple, honest woman," but in truth she is both complex and devious -- not the missionary's daughter she describes in her letter but a courtesan of great beauty, kept by men and haunted by a terrible past.
Her plan in accepting the marriage offer is simple: she will win this man's devotion, and then, ever so slowly, poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though , is a passion she finds in this seemingly solid, forthright man -- a man who also harbors secrets and whose past is far from pure.
Filled with remarkable characters and drenched with colour and atmosphere, A Reliable Wife is a story of love and madness, longing and murder, played out in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis.
My rating: 3 1/2 out of 5
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