Looking For a Good Book

It is 1966 and three women – Beverley, Elsie, and Margot – have formed an unlikely social group in Southern California. They are the wives (or ex-wives) of three of California’s most notorious serial killers of their day. Their individual personalities couldn’t be more different – from compulsive Beverly trying to control everything around her, to the beautiful Margot putting all her effort into trying to appear as though everything is fine, to Elsie who fights to make a name for herself among the testosterone-filled newsroom.

But each fights daily with their own (and others’) perception of ‘how could they not have known?’ They carry a guilt that no one should ever have to be burdened with.

They meet often – a therapeutic group that few would understand – when news hits Southern California of a new string of murders which they women see as definitely linked and pointing to a new serial killer. The police, on the other hand, are focused on pinning some of the murders on a gang war, while denying a tie to the other murders. It may be that only these three women, who have unusual insight to the minds of murderers, will have to find and reveal the newest serial killer on the block.

But one thing that is common between murderers is unpredictability and being able to throw investigators off their tracks.

I’m not quite sure what I was expecting with this book. I love the title and the era in which the story is set. Three female protagonists in the 1960’s is unusual but greatly appreciated and author Elizabeth Arnott gets much about the period so right. I don’t, though, get much sense of the culture revolution going on in the period, other than through Elsie’s struggle to be respected for her work in the newsroom.

I wasn’t expecting a mystery/thriller (again, I’m not sure what I was expecting – but perhaps it’s because the book isn’t really so much about their secret lives as much as it is about solving a mystery), but I did settle into it and enjoyed the cat-and-mouse game, though I never quite bought into their ability to get up close and personal with their suspects. I also struggled to buy into the relationship (as the ‘other woman’) with a police officer. Of course we needed that connection to the police so that the women could get some insight to the investigations.

On the other hand, I did appreciate the characters of the three women. Different and strong in their own ways and when one visits the husband in jail to try to get more insight to the newest killings, it was a powerful moment of both strength and weakness and was uncomfortable being a reading bystander as the man worked to manipulate his (ex) wife.

This was an intriguing premise, great time period, well-done, with just – for me – a couple of missteps along the way.

Looking for a good book? The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives by Elizabeth Arnott is a fine mystery/thriller but it’s not really so much about the wives’ secret lives….

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives

author: Elizabeth Arnott

publisher: Berkley

ISBN:  9780593952993

hardcover, 320 pages