Book: A Reliable Wife
Author: Robert Goolrick
Year: 2009
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Robert Goolrick's novel is filled with mystery, suspense, and romance in the early 20th century. Set against a Wisconsin backdrop, the novel begins with Ralph Truitt waiting for his prospective wife at the train station.
The reader is informed that Truitt had placed an ad in newspapers across the country looking for "a reliable wife." Truitt is a local businessman whose fortune and businesses in a small Wisconsin town have managed to fuel the entire local economy.
Truitt, who is looking for a suitable woman, is instantly attracted to a woman who describes herself as "a simple, honest woman." What he never expects is Catherine Land to show up on the train's platform.
Looking nothing like the picture she sent, Catherine is neither simple nor honest. With a vial of poison buried within her suitcase, Catherine has her own agenda in Wisconsin. A quick wedding, a short marriage followed by an unsuspecting death by arsenic for her future Mr. Truitt.
What develops is what neither one could ever have anticipated. There is an accident shortly after Catherine's arrival and Truitt is so close to death that she fears they won't even make it to the alter. After spending long hours attending to his needs, Catherine begins to develop feelings that she never expected.
What was suppose to be a scheme to earn a quick fortune, has taken a turn. With her original plan pending on Truitt's death and her lover waiting back home for the money, Catherine is torn on what to do. She soon learns she too is being used. Truitt's is hoping to utilize her to reunite him with his son.
The shocking twists and turns within the novel will have the reader turning the pages for more. Just when the reader believes they have figured out the plot, Goolrick surprises us again.
