A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

Ralph Truitt is a wealthy man, the wealthiest man in his Minnesota town in the early 1900's.  Now, as he enters his older years, he is ready to change his solitary status and has placed an advertisement near and far in the newspapers asking for a 'reliable wife'.  He chooses Catherine Land, whose reply shows a picture of a plain woman who states she is simple and honest.

But the lies start immediately.  Ralph doesn't want a wife to share his life; he is looking for a woman who can help him retrieve his estranged son.  Catherine isn't the plain woman of the picture she sent; she is an amazingly beautiful woman who knew her looks would scare off anyone who felt the need to advertise for a wife.

Somehow, these two strike a bargain.  Ralph tells her his life story, how he had married abroad to a young Italian wife and how that wife had betrayed him, leaving him without a marriage or children.  Catherine tells him just enough of her background, weaving a lie of missionary upbringing with the reality of her life before as a prostitute.  She is here now only to fleece a rich husband, willing to do whatever it takes to end up a wealthy woman.  But neither had planned what happened; a life where they fell in love and became everything to each other.

Robert Goolrick has written a groundbreaking novel that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat.  The story winds through plush environments of wealth, contrasted with the bleak, bitter winter of snow and ice.  Through all the difficulties, love insists on breaking through and providing a life to two people who never expected it.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.