MADreads

Mail-order surprise

August 21st, 2009 Kylee

When I saw that Robert Goolrick’s debut novel A Reliable Wife was about a mail-order bride AND it was set in Wisconsin, I had to read it.  Wealthy, lonely Ralph Truitt has a dark past that sets him apart from everyone in the town of Truitt, Wisconsin (named after his entrepreneur grandfather) in 1907.  He places an ad in the newspaper to find a “reliable wife” to help him get through the harsh winters, but what he finds is not so reliable.  Catherine Land, the woman he chooses to marry from the many responses he receives, is clearly hiding something.  As Ralph and Catherine become acquainted amidst snowstorms and ice, their pasts and possible futures are slowly revealed - as is the small bottle of arsenic Catherine has tucked away in her suitcase.

Goolrick manages to incorporate elements of a gothic tale, a Dickensian tragedy, and a Harlequin romance into this suspenseful drama.  If that sounds like way too much to pack into one book, well, it probably is, but somehow, Goolrick pulls it off.  Though Catherine and Ralph are melodramatic characters and the events of their lives border on ludicrous, their earnestness makes them intriguing, and I was willing to set aside my skepticism just to find out what they were going to do.  A word of caution, though: this book is pretty racy.  Be prepared for more than one R-rated scene.

Entry Filed under: Historical Fiction, Thriller