First published 2009
Catherine Land steps off the train in rural Wisconsin, responding to Ralph Truitt's newspaper advertisement for a reliable wife. She has lied about everything in her letter, claiming to be simple and honest when she is neither. Catherine carries poison and a calculated plan to marry this wealthy, lonely man, then kill him slowly to inherit his fortune. The money will let her care for the person she truly loves. Ralph Truitt waits for her in the bitter cold, harboring his own mysterious intentions for this arranged marriage. Neither Catherine nor Ralph expects what happens next. As winter deepens around them, their carefully laid schemes begin to unravel. The deception that brought them together transforms into something neither planned for or wanted to resist.
Genres: domestic-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, crime, contemporary, adult-fiction, 21st-century, deception
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Wisconsin
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
291 pages · Hardcover · Algonquin Books
Content warnings: murder