A Reliable Wife

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

read March 2010

So this was one of those books that where you knew what would happen about 20 pages into it. However, I kept reading it and.... I. Loved. It! Really good book. From Barnesandnoble.com because I'm too lazy to paraphrase it myself...

It's a frigid mid-October night in 1907 and Ralph Truitt, a wealthy industrialist living near the Canadian border, is meeting the train. It carries Catherine Land, his mail-order bride, who answered his newspaper ad for a "reliable wife." As happens in all small towns, Truitt's private business has become public. Waiting on the railroad platform, he's surrounded by curious neighbors, most of whom his mills or mines employ.

When the train finally arrives, the exotic beauty who exits the private railroad car Truitt sent to fetch her is clearly not the same woman whose photo he holds in his hand. But with so many curious eyes upon them, Truitt hustles her off to avoid a scene, yet delivers a warning: "This begins in a lie. I want you to know I know that."

Great book. Quick read. I couldn't put it down.