A Reliable Wife

Availability: In Stock. Ships from and sold by Boone Bridge Books.com.

Hardcover | Other formats

Description
In rural Wisconsin in 1909, Ralph Truitt stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting.

Reviews

Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.

Publishers Weekly (01/12/2009)
Set in 1907 Wisconsin, Goolrick's fiction debut (after a memoir, "The End of the World as We Know It") gets off to a slow, stylized start, but eventually generates some real suspense. When Catherine Land, who's survived a traumatic early life by using her wits and sexuality as weapons, happens on a newspaper ad from a well-to-do businessman in need of a reliable wife, she invents a plan to benefit from his riches and his need. Her new husband, Ralph Truitt, discovers she's deceived him the moment she arrives in his remote hometown. Driven by a complex mix of emotions and simple animal attraction, he marries her anyway. After the wedding, Catherine helps Ralph search for his estranged son and, despite growing misgivings, begins to poison him with small doses of arsenic. Ralph sickens but doesn't die, and their story unfolds in ways neither they nor the reader expect. This darkly nuanced psychological tale builds to a strong and satisfying close. "(Mar.)" Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

ISBN: 1565125967 | EAN: 9781565125964
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill  | Publication Date: March, 2009

Additional Information