A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

This was a great juicy read.   

The book begins when a man who has arranged for a bride through the classifieds is waiting for her arrival at a train station.  We learn that he is very particular and measured, and she is less simple than she lets on.  As it turns out, neither of them has signed up for pure companionship - each has an ulterior motive and the story unfolds in a completely unexpected way. 

There was so much to like about this book.  The plot was exceptional.  The characters were complex.  Even the town the characters live in is well-crafted: an author's note at the end of the book indicates that it is based on a real town whose occupants suffered from sudden madness at the turn of the 20th century. 

The other thing about the book I really enjoyed was that Goolrick created a Harlequin-Gothic-Trashy Novel-Spooky vibe but wrote an exceptional book.  Definitely recommended and hope to see more fiction from Goolrick in the future.