Ron Charles
Don't be fooled by the prissy cover or that ironic title. Robert Goolrick's first novel, A Reliable Wife, isn't just hot, it's in heat: a gothic tale of such smoldering desire it should be read in a cold shower. This is a bodice ripper of a hundred thousand pearly buttons, ripped off one at a time with agonizing restraint. It works only because Goolrick never cracks a smile, never lets on that he thinks all this overwrought sexual frustration is anything but the most serious incantation of longing and despair ever uttered in the dead of night.
—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Set in 1907 Wisconsin, Goolrick's fiction debut (after a memoir, The End of the World as We Know It) gets off to a slow, stylized start, but eventually generates some real suspense. When Catherine Land, who's survived a traumatic early life by using her wits and sexuality as weapons, happens on a newspaper ad from a well-to-do businessman in need of a "reliable wife," she invents a plan to benefit from his riches and his need. Her new husband, Ralph Truitt, discovers she's deceived him the moment she arrives in his remote hometown. Driven by a complex mix of emotions and simple animal attraction, he marries her anyway. After the wedding, Catherine helps Ralph search for his estranged son and, despite growing misgivings, begins to poison him with small doses of arsenic. Ralph sickens but doesn't die, and their story unfolds in ways neither they nor the reader expect. This darkly nuanced psychological tale builds to a strong and satisfying close. (Mar.)
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From the Publisher
"A gothic tale of . . . smoldering desire. . . . The novel is deliciously wicked and tense, presented as a series of sepia tableaux, interrupted by flashes of bright red violence. . . . Once you've fallen into the miasma of A Reliable Wife, it's intoxicating." -Washington Post
--The Washington Post
"Goolrick twists a familiar story, refashioning it into something completely original. . . . Few have permeated their narratives with gothic elements and suspense to such great effect. . . . The unforeseen conclusion provides a big payoff for readers of this tension-laden debut from a promising new talent." - Booklist
A "fierce and sophisticated debut novel . . . In its best moments, A Reliable Wife calls to mind the chilling tales of Poe and Stephen King, and at its core this is a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions. It melds a plot drenched in suspense with expertly realized characters and psychological realism. The fate of those characters is in doubt right up to this relentless story's intense final pages, and Goolrick's ability to sustain that tension is a tribute to his craftsmanship and one of the true pleasures of a fine first novel." -- Bookpage
--Chicago Sun-Times
"[A] beautifully written, beautifully dark book. Goolrick is a superb writer."--Chicago Sun-Times
--Washington Post
"A gothic tale of . . . smoldering desire . . . The novel is deliciously wicked and tense, presented as a series of sepia tableaux, interrupted by flashes of bright red violence . . . Once you've fallen into the miasma of A Reliable Wife, it's intoxicating." --The Washington Post
--Today Show
"A killer debut novel . . . Suspenseful and erotic . . . [A] chillingly engrossing plot . . . Good to the riveting end." --USA Today --NPR's Morning Edition
"A tantalizing pace that will have you flipping faster and faster through the pages . . . A beautiful and haunting read, a story about all the different manifestations of love--a story that will stay with you." --Minneapolis Star Tribune
"A thrilling, juicy read . . . The writing is beautiful and the story is captivating. It's a real page-turner." --Today show
--Booklist
"Robert Goolrick's A Reliable Wife is my must-read recommendation . . . This engrossing and addictive novel will leave you both chilled and satisfied." --Chris Livingston, Summer's Best reads on NPR's Morning Edition
--Minneapolis Star Tribune
A Reliable Wife "generates some real suspense . . .This darkly nuanced psychological tale builds to a strong and satisfying close." -Publishers Weekly
--Christian Science Monitor
"A killer debut novel . . . suspenseful and erotic . . . [A] chillingly engrossing plot . . . good to the riveting end." -USA Today
--USA Today
"After breaking through with a disquieting memoir . . . Goolrick applies his storytelling talents to a debut novel, set in 1907, about icy duplicity and heated vengeance. . . . A sublime murder ballad that doesn't turn out at all the way one might expect." --Kirkus, starred review
--Publishers Weekly
"Debut novelist Robert Goolrick has managed a minor miracle. In the kind of precise, literary prose that breathes life into his complicated characters, Goolrick, author of an acclaimed memoir, has also managed a rousing historical potboiler, an organic mystery rooted in the real social ills of turn-of-the-century America. Whether writing about the farms of Wisconsin or the fleshpots of St. Louis, he re-creates a full-bodied, believable environment, and he peoples these worlds with characters as sensitive, as tortured as any contemporary souls. The result is a detailed exploration of love, despair, and the distance people can travel to reach each other that is as surprising, and as suspenseful, as any beach read." -- Boston Globe
--BookPage
A "glittering, poisoned ice cube of a tale . . . Has a little of the Gothic feel of Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca--complete with a dead first wife, suspicious housekeeper, and gorgeous mansion . . . A Reliable Wife is eminently readable and should delight fans of old-fashioned Gothic romances . . . Goolrick is a solid wordsmith, and he handily manages the impressive task of making readers care about a woman bent on cold-blooded murder. And generating the proper Gothic ambience in Wisconsin is no mean feat." -- Christian Science Monitor
--Time Out New York
"A weighty psychodrama laced with Hitchcockian suspense."-- Time Out New York --USA Today
Christian Science Monitor
A Reliable Wife “generates some real suspense . . .This darkly nuanced psychological tale builds to a strong and satisfying close.” –Publishers Weekly
NPR's Morning Edition
"A killer debut novel . . . Suspenseful and erotic . . . [A] chillingly engrossing plot . . . Good to the riveting end." —USA Today
The Washington Post
"A gothic tale of . . . smoldering desire. . . . The novel is deliciously wicked and tense, presented as a series of sepia tableaux, interrupted by flashes of bright red violence. . . . Once you've fallen into the miasma of A Reliable Wife, it's intoxicating." –Washington Post
Washington Post
"[A] beautifully written, beautifully dark book. Goolrick is a superb writer."—Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
A "fierce and sophisticated debut novel . . . In its best moments, A Reliable Wife calls to mind the chilling tales of Poe and Stephen King, and at its core this is a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions. It melds a plot drenched in suspense with expertly realized characters and psychological realism. The fate of those characters is in doubt right up to this relentless story’s intense final pages, and Goolrick’s ability to sustain that tension is a tribute to his craftsmanship and one of the true pleasures of a fine first novel." — Bookpage
Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Robert Goolrick's A Reliable Wife is my must-read recommendation . . . This engrossing and addictive novel will leave you both chilled and satisfied." —Chris Livingston, Summer's Best reads on NPR’s Morning Edition
Today Show
"A gothic tale of . . . smoldering desire . . . The novel is deliciously wicked and tense, presented as a series of sepia tableaux, interrupted by flashes of bright red violence . . . Once you’ve fallen into the miasma of A Reliable Wife, it’s intoxicating." —The Washington Post
USA Today
A weighty psychodrama laced with Hitchcockian suspense.”— Time Out New York
Booklist
"A thrilling, juicy read . . . The writing is beautiful and the story is captivating. It’s a real page-turner." —Today show
BookPage
Debut novelist Robert Goolrick has managed a minor miracle. In the kind of precise, literary prose that breathes life into his complicated characters, Goolrick, author of an acclaimed memoir, has also managed a rousing historical potboiler, an organic mystery rooted in the real social ills of turn-of-the-century America. Whether writing about the farms of Wisconsin or the fleshpots of St. Louis, he re-creates a full-bodied, believable environment, and he peoples these worlds with characters as sensitive, as tortured as any contemporary souls. The result is a detailed exploration of love, despair, and the distance people can travel to reach each other that is as surprising, and as suspenseful, as any beach read.” — Boston Globe
Time Out New York
A “glittering, poisoned ice cube of a tale . . . Has a little of the Gothic feel of Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca—complete with a dead first wife, suspicious housekeeper, and gorgeous mansion . . . A Reliable Wife is eminently readable and should delight fans of old-fashioned Gothic romances . . . Goolrick is a solid wordsmith, and he handily manages the impressive task of making readers care about a woman bent on cold-blooded murder. And generating the proper Gothic ambience in Wisconsin is no mean feat.” — Christian Science Monitor
Washington Post
A gothic tale of . . . smoldering desire . . . The novel is deliciously wicked and tense, presented as a series of sepia tableaux, interrupted by flashes of bright red violence . . . Once you’ve fallen into the miasma of A Reliable Wife, it’s intoxicating.
Boston Globe
A rousing historical potboiler, an organic mystery rooted in the real social ills of turn-of-the-century America. . . with characters as sensitive, as tortured as any contemporary souls. . . . As surprising, and as suspenseful, as any beach read.
Sandra Brown
I was totally captivated by A Reliable Wife. Raw and lyrical at the same time, Robert Goolrick’s wonderful novel grips the reader with its complex and beautiful story.
NPR
This engrossing and addictive novel will leave you both chilled and satisfied.
Independent (UK)
Psychosexual, psychopathic, psycho-everything: Goolrick is out to thrill.
Booklist
Completely original. . . .The unforeseen conclusion provides a big payoff for readers of this tension-laden debut from a promising new talent.
USA Today
A killer debut novel . . . suspenseful and erotic . . . [A] chillingly engrossing plot . . . good to the riveting end.
Chicago Sun-Times
A "fierce and sophisticated debut novel . . . In its best moments, A Reliable Wife calls to mind the chilling tales of Poe and Stephen King, and at its core this is a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions. It melds a plot drenched in suspense with expertly realized characters and psychological realism. The fate of those characters is in doubt right up to this relentless story’s intense final pages, and Goolrick’s ability to sustain that tension is a tribute to his craftsmanship and one of the true pleasures of a fine first novel." -- Bookpage
OCTOBER 2009 - AudioFile
Winter comes early to rural Wisconsin in 1907, and its bite is already in the air when Catherine Land arrives to become the "reliable wife" whom businessman and widower Ralph Truitt has advertised for. They both have their hidden motives—Catherine wants Ralph's riches; he wants her to facilitate a reconciliation with his estranged son. The surgical precision of Robert Goolrick's language lays bare the tangled threads of love, hate, revenge, and redemption in this debut novel. Mark Feuerstein's performance is spellbinding. His crisp delivery matches the staccato rhythm of Goolrick's declarative sentences. Further, he brings each character's unique voice to life with modulated tones that convey layers of personality and emotions. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
