Miami - March 31, 2009

Old Wives’ Tale

“A Reliable Wife,” by Robert Goolrick

A wide net is generally not the best way to catch a woman.

Exhibit A: the mass text (“hi! what u doin tonite?”).

But occasionally it works — like in Robert Goolrick’s debut novel, A Reliable Wife. In 1907, wealthy businessman Ralph Truitt places an advertisement in newspapers around the country in the hopes of finding a simple, honest companion. He ends up with the cunning Catherine Land. From the moment she arrives in blustery Wisconsin, it’s clear she’s not whom she says.

Both characters are haunted by their pasts. And as the novel unfolds, so do their secrets — the good kind (sex, opium, murder, sex). The suspenseful story weaves a Rebecca-like plot — complete with twist — that takes you from the remote solitude of the pre-Internet countryside to the excellent debauchery of turn-of-the-century Saint Louis.

Seriously: You’ll be hooked.

Available online at booksandbooks.com.

DailyCandy Bookshelf: What else are we reading?