A Reliable Wife: When Passion turns to Poison - Couverture souple

Goolrick, Robert

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0349122369 ISBN 13 : 9780349122366

Editeur : Abacus, 2010

Synopsis

COUNTRY BUSINESSMAN SEEKS RELIABLE WIFE. COMPELLED BY PRACTICAL REASONS. REPLY BY LETTER. Rural Wisconsin, 1907. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful industrialist, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement. But when Catherine steps of the train she's not the woman that that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious. And, haunted by a terrible past, she is motivated by greed. Catherine's plan is simple. She will win Ralph's devotion. Later, she will leave him as a wealthy woman. What Catherine has not counted on however is that Ralph might have plans of his own for his new wife ...

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

“A glittering, poisoned ice cube of a tale . . . eminently readable.” (Christian Science Monitor)

“A weighty psychodrama laced with Hitchcockian suspense.” (Time Out New York)

“[A] beautifully written, beautifully dark book. Goolrick is a superb writer.” (Chicago Sun-Times)

 “A killer debut novel . . . suspenseful and erotic . . . [A] chillingly engrossing plot . . . good to the riveting end.” (USA Today)

“A gothic tale of . . . smoldering desire . . . The novel is deliciously wicked and tense, presented as a series of sepia tableaux, interrupted by flashes of bright red violence . . . Once you’ve fallen into the miasma of A Reliable Wife, it’s intoxicating.” (Washington Post)

“This engrossing and addictive novel will leave you both chilled and satisfied.” (NPR)

“A thrilling, juicy read . . . The writing is beautiful and the story is captivating. It’s a real page-turner.” (Today Show)

“A tantalizing pace that will have you flipping faster and faster through the pages . . .  A beautiful and haunting read, a story about all the different manifestations of love―a story that will stay with you.” (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

“Completely original. . . .The unforeseen conclusion provides a big payoff for readers of this tension-laden debut from a promising new talent.” (Booklist)

“A sublime murder ballad that doesn’t turn out at all the way one might expect.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))

“This darkly nuanced psychological tale builds to a strong and satisfying close.” (Publishers Weekly)

“I was totally captivated by A Reliable Wife. Raw and lyrical at the same time, Robert Goolrick’s wonderful novel grips the reader with its complex and beautiful story.” (Sandra Brown)

“A rousing historical potboiler, an organic mystery rooted in the real social ills of turn-of-the-century America. . . with characters as sensitive, as tortured as any contemporary souls. . . . As surprising, and as suspenseful, as any beach read.” (Boston Globe)

“Psychosexual, psychopathic, psycho-everything: Goolrick is out to thrill.” (Independent (UK))

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Set in a small Wisconsin farming and manufacturing town still crumbling a decade after the depression of the 1890s, A Reliable Wife tells the story of Ralph Truitt, a wealthy businessman who advertises for “a reliable wife” in newspapers across America. The woman 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 claims to be in her letter to Truitt but a courtesan of great beauty, kept by men and haunted by a terrible past. Catherine’s plan in accepting the marriage offer is simple: she will win this man’s devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is the passion she finds in this seemingly solid, forthright man—a man who also harbours secrets and whose own 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.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Abacus
• Date d'édition: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0349122369
• ISBN 13: 9780349122366
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 304