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Lauren Willig
St. Martins Press
1/9/18 / ISBN 9781250056276
Historical, Mystery
Reviewed
by Elise Cooper
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The English Wife
by Lauren Willig is full of intrigue
and suspense. It is a refreshing change from all the recent
Gone Girl look-alikes and instead is part mystery, part love
story, and part family drama. This historical crime fiction
novel involves murder, scandals, and secrets.
The Gilded Age is highlighted between the years 1894 in England
to 1899 in New York. Bayard, the son of a Knickerbocker prominent
family returns after a three-year absence with his English wife,
Annabelle aka Georgie. Their supposed whirlwind romance is shattered
at the opening of their Twelfth Night Ball to highlight the
new manor. Bayard is discovered with a dagger in his chest,
while Annabelle appears to have drowned in the Hudson.
The story should remind readers of the Clue Game with an abundance
of suspects and motives. There is Bay’s cousin Anne, who
could be having an affair, his sister Janie who found the body,
his mother who is omnipresent, and his wife Georgie who has
disappeared. As rumors swirl, Janie decides to work with a reporter,
Burke, to save the reputation of her brother and sister-in-law
to uncover the truth.
Readers are taken back to stories of the past with the characters.
Bayard reminds people of Noel Coward, enjoying music, the arts,
and plays while having another side to his life. The cousin
Anne and Bay’s sister Janie are close to the Cinderella
characters with the mother, Mrs. Van Duyvil a reminder of the
stepmother.
Willig noted, “Mrs. Van Duyvil was cold, controlling,
impersonal, and distant. She was only concerned with the lineage,
money, and power. She represented the old New York attitude.
I put in the quote of her telling Annabelle that her heritage
went back to Revolutionary times to prove how important her
family was. Of course, Annabelle replies that her lineage goes
back to the Magna Carta. I guess that was her in your face moment
to her mother-in-law. The comparison fits well with the Cinderella
story because Anne is told she has no place in this world. Like
Cinderella, Anne is beautiful and charming. Mrs. Van Duyvil
treated Janie and Anne as her pawns.”
The ball called the Twelfth Night is based on the Shakespearean
play of the same name. Willig wanted to show that the play’s
story “is all about misunderstanding. It has everyone
thinking someone is someone else. This plays into the secrets
the characters are keeping from each other. There are a lot
of people masquerading as someone else. This is similar to this
novel’s story where it delves into what the world has
done to them. The real heart of my story is that all the characters
are forced by the world they live in to try to be people they
are not. This is especially true with Georgie and Bay who were
full of secrets with each hiding something from the other. There
were these implied lies based on the omission of information.
Georgie first saw Bay as the Prince Charming and he thinks of
her as the missing heiress.”
Readers will enjoy this novel because Willig brings to the forefront
the attitudes and issues of the period within the context of
a riveting mystery. She shows through the characters how the
Gilded Age was based on wealth and stature, and with it came
scandal. This is where the murder mystery comes into play allowing
Willig to combine everything into a very compelling story.
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