The English Wife

November 27, 2017
Fans of romantic suspense will best appreciate this whodunit set in 1899 from bestseller Willig (The Ashford Affair). Janie Van Duyvil feels insignificant and out-of-place at a fancy Twelfth Night dinner party that her brother, Bay, and his wife, Annabelle, throw at the ancestral family home in Cold Spring, N.Y. Her self-pity is quickly superseded by horror after a cousin of hers stumbles on Bay lying on the ground outside the house, bleeding from a dagger wound. Bay utters the name George before expiring. Annabelle’s subsequent disappearance and a tabloid’s instant assertion that Bay murdered her before committing suicide heighten the tragedy of his death. Determined to exonerate her sibling, Janie turns investigator, finding passion and love along the way. Flashbacks to 1894 London introduce a woman known as Georgie and describe her initial encounter with Bay, interrupting the momentum of Janie’s story line, and awkward prose (“Fragments of poetry danced through her mind like crystal baubles”) is a minus. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM.

March 15, 2018

Annabelle is the young English wife of wealthy New Yorker Bayard Van Duyvil. On a dark Twelfth Night, January 6, 1899, Bay is found fatally stabbed, while Annabelle has disappeared--probably swept away in the frigid Hudson River. After this horrific opening, Willig (The Other Daughter) takes listeners back to their meeting and subsequent romance in England six years before. Annabelle and Bay equate their relationship with Shakespearean comedy, only to find that a tragic flaw destroys their carefully constructed life. Alternating with their story is that of Janie, Bay's timid and miserable sister. Though the press describes her brother's and sister-in-law's deaths as a murder/suicide, Janie doesn't believe it and decides to find the real killer herself, with the help of a sympathetic and resourceful journalist. Reader Barrie Kreinik does an excellent job with characterization--soft-spoken Bay has a hesitant and slow cadence. Annabelle's strength and energy are indicated by her crisp diction and impatient pacing. Lost Janie's voice almost disappears--quiet and even more cautious than Bay's. All the other characters are voiced with individuality and bring the listener immediately into the story. VERDICT Recommended for all popular collections. ["Willig, best known for her best-selling 'Pink Carnation' series, has a knack for creating sympathetic characters and fully fleshed settings, adding some juicy plot twists to this atmospheric period piece": LJ 9/15/17 review of the St. Martin's hc.]--Juleigh Muirhead Clark, Williamsburg, VA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Willig's audiobook, set in Gilded Age New York and London, is a mix of romance, mystery, and murder. Narrator Barrie Kreinik is a perfect fit for the mix of British and American characters. Kreinik's delivery ranges from Annabelle's proper British accent to the deep tones of Bayard Van Duyvil, her American husband, and his family, including his younger sister, Janie. The story alternates between the events following Bay's murder, and Bay and Annabelle's story. Kreinik's reading is slow paced, allowing the tension to build as the story unfolds. But it's her portrayal of Janie that really develops throughout the story as Janie teams up with a reporter to find her brother's killer, making her own choices and maybe even falling in love. E.N. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine