The Innocent Wife

January 8, 2018
In British author Lloyd’s labored debut, Samantha, an English schoolteacher, becomes obsessed with the case of Dennis Danson, who has been on death row since 1993 for the gruesome murder of a high school girl in Florida’s Red River County. He was suspected of killing four other girls, but their bodies were never found, and Sam is convinced he’s innocent. Sam starts to correspond with Dennis, and they develop a bond that prompts her to fly to the U.S. to visit him in Altoona Prison. Their initially awkward romance eventually results in their marrying; an unexpected confession leads to Dennis’s release from Altoona. Sam, naive and unconfident, and Dennis, secretive and withdrawn, move into the remote Danson family home in Red River, where they must face the hostility of the locals. Dennis’s reconnecting with a sinister childhood friend, Lindsay Durst, complicates the couple’s uncomfortable life together. Dennis’s backstory—growing up poor with an abusive drunk of a father and a chronically depressed mother—follows familiar lines. The contrived and unexpected climax disappoints. Fans of serial killer fiction will find nothing new.

Starred review from January 1, 2018
Samantha becomes obsessed with death-row inmate Dennis Danson's case after watching a documentary that casts doubt on the evidence that convicted him of murdering teenager Holly Michaels in Red River, Florida. She buries herself in online forums, dissecting the case, convinced that Danson has been framed. Within months, Sam evolves from faithful correspondent into prison wife. Then, miraculously, Dennis is released after retested DNA evidence matches a convicted sex offender, who confesses to Michaels' murder. But the newfound freedom isn't as blissful as Sam imagined: Dennis claims the trauma of imprisonment and the pressure of the media spotlight are hindering his affections, and his stinging criticisms leave her constantly striving to please him. When Dennis' estranged father dies, he suddenly decrees that they will return to his isolated childhood home in Red River while they settle the estate. Unfortunately, just about everyone in town remains convinced that Dennis is a killer, and the newlyweds are plagued by a hostile police force and relentless vandals. Their only ally is Dennis' childhood friend, Lindsay, who is determined to prove to Sam that she alone protects Dennis' secrets. As Sam's suspicion about Dennis' past reaches terror proportions, the forbidding swampland surrounding their home seems to close in, creating atmospheric tension that builds to a series of well-played twists. A compulsively readable thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

January 15, 2018
A lonely British schoolteacher falls for an American man incarcerated for the murder of a young woman. What could possibly go wrong?Samantha, 31, is still reeling from a bad breakup when she discovers Framing the Truth: The Murder of Holly Michaels, an 18-year-old true-crime documentary about the killing of a young girl by then-18-year-old Dennis Danson, aka the suspected Red River Killer, who's still on death row in Florida's Altoona Prison. Sam writes to Dennis, and soon they're declaring their love for each other. Sam flies to the U.S. to meet him, and although they're separated by plexiglass, she knows that she's found the love of her life. The chirpy Carrie, who co-produced and directed the first documentary, is Sam's guide while she's there, and Sam accompanies her while they film a new series about Dennis, A Boy from Red River. Sam and Dennis quickly marry when new evidence comes to light and Dennis is exonerated and released. Amid a whirlwind of talk shows, celebrity attention, and the new series premiere, married life isn't quite what Sam had hoped for: intimacy is nonexistent, the already self-loathing Sam feels unloved and unwanted, and the appearance of Dennis' clingy childhood friend Lindsay Durst sends Sam into a jealous fit. After Dennis' father dies, they move into Dennis' childhood home, and Sam begins to suspect he may be hiding something. After all, what actually happened to all those other missing girls? Refreshingly, Lloyd seems absolutely unconcerned with whether or not her characters are likable, and although a few British sayings ("round," "in hospital") make their way into the dialogue of the American characters, her research into the aftereffects of long incarceration is obvious, and her portrait of an emotionally damaged woman feels spot-on.A grim and unbearably tense debut chiller with an unexpected and utterly fitting finale.

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