Fiction Pick of the Week: A Reliable Wife

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick 2009

Beautiful Catherine Land sat on the train, fingering the jewels she had sewn into the hem of her dress and staring out at scenes of never ending deep snow. Ralph Truitt waited for his mail order bride at the station his fingers holding on to her picture in his pocket. He was a wealthy businessman of the 1890s, who desired a reliable wife. She was a seductress of the city intent on becoming a rich widow. Their desires and obsessions would eventually uncover the other’s secret lives causing love, despair, madness and murder. The author spreads this dark, psychological tale across a bleak, winter landscape leaving its vibrant characters to unfold this complex story of how bitter walls of memories taint the lives of all who enter and the agony/ecstasy of love and redemption.