Review-A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick

Happy weekend to everyone. I've settled back into the teacher role, now that I have reacquainted with all my students from last year. It always amazes me how 10 weeks can make such a difference in their growth. Some of my students are taller than me. They just love trying to out height me. LOL What you probably don't know is that I am only 5' tall.

Some kindergarten students are still apprehensive and others are taking the leadership role seriously. Looking back to this second week of school there were the occasional tears coupled at times with trips to the nurse for sympathy and hand holding. Most surprising and at times astonishing were my conversations with kids that never cease to amaze me.

I read The Reliable Wife back in June and I am just posting it to my blog as it was pending publication elsewhere. I really enjoyed this book. There were a few slow parts in the middle that I remember thinking, ok lets move on, but otherwise it was a great read. Hope you like it!

Review

A Reliable Wife
Robert Goolrick, Algonquin Books, March 31, 2009, $23.95,HC, 291pp,978-1410417381.



Ralph Truitt and Catherine Land meet at a train station in rural Wisconsin in 1907.
Ralph’s ad for a reliable wife has brought them together. They’re both looking to make a change in their life but it may be more than just a simple marriage.
She hungers for more in life as money and social standing utmost in her sights.
She is not who she seems. She is hiding more than the precious gems sewn in her dress hem and a small blue bottle she carries. When she steps off the train, Ralph takes one look at the well worn photograph of Catherine and clearly she is not the woman he has been corresponding with. Furious at her subterfuge she will still suit his purpose. Although he feels deceived, he has plans for Catherine that with any luck will bring his wayward son home to him. Detectives do locate this lost son, now a man who plays piano in a bar. HIs name is the lascivious Tony Moretti, but on approach he denies Ralph is his father. Meanwhile, Catherine sets in motion a plan to kill her husband with arsenic from her small blue bottle. Why would she jeopardize her new charmed life style married to the rich Mr. Truitt?

The characters of Ralph and Catherine are carefully chiseled and polished. Robert Goolrick creates a clever labyrinth of deceit, guilt and forgiveness. The story is racked with tension as he slowly manipulates his readers through the twisted maze of plot complexity. Goolrick’s writing is embraceable, warm and comfortable with an occasional electric shock. Suspense is this storytellers magic.