A Reliable Wife

by Robert Goolrick

While in Seattle I wondered into a small locally owned bookstore and browsed the shelves. The kind of bookstore that has staff recommendations on every shelf and in every category and all of them make every book sound amazing. That’s how I ended up with A Reliable Wife. A rave review and a list of endorsements on the back had me. Not to mention the cover. However, I discovered early on that this isn’t my type of book.


Robert Goolrick has a definitive writing style which I have discovered some people love. I found it annoying and boring. I love lush writing but I was just put off. It took me until the end of the book to care what was going to happen and even then I really didn’t care that much.

Catherine, a complex woman, with a master plan to marry and destroy the wealthy widow Ralph Truitt. As Catherine’s plan to murder her new husband comes to fruition complex memories surface for herself, Ralph, Alice and Antonio. Can she slowly poison the only man who has ever cared for her?
Ralph gives up on love, life and redemption. As he lies in bed debilitated I grew infuriated with his lack of caring for himself or for his family. Can a man who knows the sins of wife really be that forgiving and listless? Only as he witnesses Antonio’s crime against Catherine does he show the emotions of a man who cares. But for me it was too late to care about anyone in the book.
Bottomline, if you love romances this is not the book for you. Even if you like to read something a little bit different now and then this still might not be the book for you.