A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick, is the story of how Catherine Land answers a rather pathetic sounding classified ad placed by a lonely, tormented rich man. From the beginning of her correspondence with him, Catherine is up to no good at all: she plans on slowly poisoning Ralph Truitt and having his fortune for herself.

Automatically, I expected this tale to turn into one of those beautiful, gradual love stories in which Catherine falls in love with Ralph and realizes the dream of having both love and money in her life. However, the story involves other people who make the plot more complicated, but not more interesting. In other words, I'm not raving about this book. I found the writing style to be incongruent with the time period, which was just after the turn of the century (1908), and I felt that the characters were not very fleshed out. Their past lives were told in a quick, glancing way, while the flowers Catherine loved so much were described in lush detail. There is a climatic scene near the end that seems to drag on and on, and just before the too-happy ending, the author actually beats into the reader what this story has been all about. Just in case she missed it.

One of the themes of Goolrick's book is that life in Wisconsin was harsh for most people back then, and people went mad and did insane things. This is true, but parts of this tale seemed either too unlikely or not explained well enough. Goolrick also commits repetition of information, which I found to be very annoying, besides being a detriment to the movement of the story.

I feel so weird for panning this book! It's not that Robert Goolrick is a bad writer, it's that this particular story was executed poorly. Despite its flaws, I did not have trouble finishing it, but I did wince as I did so. This is my humble opinion after hearing such good things about this book.

So don't throw tomatoes at me! ( )

I just read my review of his previous book, a memoir about sexual abuse. Apparently I thought his writing suddenly changed in the middle of the book to become searing and exquisite. I would have to say the opposite about this book, where the writing suddenly became overwrought. A rich guy at the turn of the century advertises for a wife and a woman who, it turns out, is in love with his estranged son, shows up. They have an implausible plot to kill the father/husband for his money. And that's about it. I skimmed the last half. ( )

This book had me from the very first page. One-part believable book and one-part fable-like story. When a wealthy man puts an add in the paper for a "reliable wife", you just can't help but wonder where it's going to go. ( )

Clever. Entertaining. And well written. ( )

This book came highly recommended and did not disappoint. Goolrick pulls you in to a Mid West winter (of the soul?) and you shiver even though he describes how not to. Catherine and Ralph are tragic, damaged figures who can't escape their pasts or their connections. A fantastic read. ( )