A stranger. A small town. The wife of the town's richest man. There’s no stopping what’s about to happen in this searing new novel from million copy bestseller, Robert Goolrick. For fans of The Help, Tigers in Red Weather and The Great Gatsby.It is the summer of 1948 when a handsome, charismatic stranger, Charlie Beale, back from war in Europe, shows up in the sleepy town of Brownsburg, Virginia. All he has with him are two suitcases: one contains...

A stranger. A small town. The wife of the town's richest man. There’s no stopping what’s about to happen in this searing new novel from million copy bestseller, Robert Goolrick. For fans of The Help, Tigers in Red Weather and The Great Gatsby.It is the summer of 1948 when a handsome, charismatic stranger, Charlie Beale, back from war in Europe, shows up in the sleepy town of Brownsburg, Virginia. All he has with him are two suitcases: one contains...

COUNTRY BUSINESSMAN SEEKS RELIABLE WIFE.COMPELLED BY PRACTICAL REASONS.REPLY BY LETTER.Rural Wisconsin, 1907. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful industrialist, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement. But when Catherine steps of the train she's not the woman that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious. And, haunted by a terrible past, she is motivated by greed. Catherine's plan is simple....

From the author of the bestselling A Reliable Wife comes a dramatic, passionate tale of a glamorous Southern debutante who marries for money and ultimately suffers for love—a southern gothic as written by Dominick Dunne.It begins with a house and ends in ashes . . .Diana Cooke was "born with the century" and came of age just after World War I. The daughter of Virginia gentry, she knew early that her parents had only one asset, besides her famous beauty: th...

Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will...

The year is 1907, and Ralph Truitt, a wealthy but lonely country businessman in his fifties, advertises in a Chicago paper for a 'reliable wife'.Catherine Land, a beautiful thirty-four-year-old, responds that she is a 'simple, honest woman', but the photo she sends with her response is of someone else.Slowly we learn of Catherine's intentions and of Ralph's past. They both carry regret and sorrow and both have chosen very different ways to deal with what life has brought th...

A dramatic, passionate Southern gothic tale of a glamorous debutante who marries for money and suffers for love—perfect for fans of Dominick Dunne.It begins with a house and ends in ashes . . .Diana Cooke was "born with the century" and came of age just after World War I. The daughter of Virginia gentry, she knew early that, other than her famous beauty, her parents had only one asset: their stately house, Saratoga. Though they are land-rich, the Coo...

"A heart-wrenching, beautiful, darkly comic, deeply necessary tale that stuns again and again with razor-sharp prose and glittering wit. Robert Goolrick is, without question, one of the greatest storytellers of our time." —Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger's WifeIn the spellbinding new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Goolrick, 1980s Manhattan shimmers like the mirage it was, as money, power, and invincibility seduce a group of...

Robert Goolrick's riveting debut novel is both foreboding and sensual. When a wealthy man first meets his mail-order bride in 1907, he realizes this statuesque beauty is anything but a "simple missionary's daughter." But he doesn't know of her devious plan to leave Wisconsin as a rich widow. Nor does she know of the furious demons he longs to unleash during the lonely months of snowbound isolation. "A sublime murder ballad ."-Kirkus Reviews, starred review

In the Spellbinding new novel for New York Times bestselling author Robert Goolrick, 1980s Manhattan shimmers like the mirage it was, as money, power, and invincibility seduce a group of young Wall Street turks. Together they reach the pinnacle, achieving the kind of wealth that grants them access to anything and anyone they want. Until, one by one, they fall. With the literary chops of Bonfire of the Vanities and the dizzying decadence of The Wolf of Wall Street...

From the author of the bestselling A Reliable Wife comes a dramatic, passionate tale of a glamorous Southern debutante who marries for money and ultimately suffers for love—a southern gothic as written by Dominick Dunne.It begins with a house and ends in ashes . . .Diana Cooke was ""born with the century"" and came of age just after World War I. The daughter of Virginia gentry, she knew early that her parents had only one asset, besides her famous beauty: ...

It was the 1950s, a time of calm, a time when all things were new and everything seemed possible. A few years before, a noble war had been won, and now life had returned to normal. For one little boy, however, life had become anything but "normal." To all appearances, he and his family lived an almost idyllic life. The father was a respected professor, the mother a witty and elegant lady, someone everyone loved. They were parents to three bright, smiling children: two boys and a girl. They...