A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

The setting is 1907 wisconsin. Our main characters are Ralph Truitt and Catherine Land.

Catherine answers a personal ad placed by Ralph for a "reliable" wife. Ralph is not looking for a romantic relationship. His desire is to have a wife to keep him company during the long Wisconsin winters.

The main thrust of the novel is the fact that Catherine is not who she says she is and neither is Ralph. During the course of the story you find out all of their secrets and the plot takes many twists and turns before it concludes.

The book has elements of the gothic novel "Rebecca" included in the fact that Ralph's first wife is dead. There are elements of the novel "Moll Flanders" in the fact that Catherine is a woman with a shady past that lives by her wits.

The plot is fast paced and I kept turning pages to find out how things would be resolved for Ralph and Catherine. Even though there are some dark aspects to the novel I still enjoyed it and it was great entertainment for an evening of reading outside on my deck.