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A Reliable Wife

 (Google eBook)
Front Cover
394 Reviews
Algonquin Books, Jan 5, 2010 - Fiction - 320 pages
Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan 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 that Truitt — a passionate man with his own dark secrets —has plans of his own for his new wife. Isolated on a remote estate and imprisoned by relentless snow, the story of Ralph and Catherine unfolds in unimaginable ways.

With echoes of Wuthering Heights and Rebecca, Robert Goolrick's intoxicating debut novel delivers a classic tale of suspenseful seduction, set in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis.
  

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5 stars
50
4 stars
89
3 stars
111
2 stars
99
1 star
39

Brilliant, poignant writing at times. - Goodreads
Now, the plot was super stupid. - Goodreads
This is the best love story I have read in a long time. - Overstock.com
It is a sad story with no real happy ending. - Goodreads
Such descriptive and passionate story telling... - Goodreads
It's lackluster, sloppy, and plain old shitty writing. - Goodreads

Review: A Reliable Wife

User Review  - Dorothy - Goodreads

Read, read, skim skim skim, read, skim skim, read, skim read. Oh dear. I found this book hilarious, which is certainly not what the author intended. Enough already after ten pages. I get the point ... Read full review

Review: A Reliable Wife

User Review  - Bonnie - Goodreads

This book and I were getting along just fine until about half way through when the UTTER RIDICULOUSNESS kicked in and it lost me completely - so completely that I got angry I was even reading it. Look ... Read full review

All 394 reviews »

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Selected pages

Contents

PART TWO
113
PART THREE
187
BEHOLDEN
293
SPECIAL THANKS
294
Chapter One
3
Copyright

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About the author (2010)

Robert Goolrick is the author of two books: The End of the World as We Know It, a memoir, and his first novel, A Reliable Wife. He lives in Virginia.

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