The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison

silentIf you have been looking for another “Gone, Girl” then you might try A.S.A. Harrison’s “The Silent Wife”.  A chilling thriller about a marriage, a way of life and what a woman will do to fight to keep what she thinks is rightfully hers.   While there are similarities between these books, this is a much   more reserved psychological look at the disintegration of a marriage than “Gone, Girl”.

Alternating between Jodi and Todd’s point of view,  the reader feels the drama unfold.   Jodi, a therapist, the “wife” of “The Silent Wife”  has been with Todd for 20 years without ever marrying him, even though most of their friends think of her as “Mrs. Gilbert”.  Todd, a contractor, loves Jodi in his own emotionally stunted way,  but has several affairs throughout the years that Jodi chooses to ignore because they have never amounted to much-until Todd meets Natasha, the daughter of one of his best friends.  Natasha dazzles Todd with her lush youth and is the polar opposite of the slender, dark, proper, passive aggressive Jodi. 

There is a  restrained, intensity to A.S.A. Harrison’s “The Silent Wife” that is just as scary as any overt graphic violence could be because you perceive  the anger that seethes  beneath the polite restraint.  In many ways, Jodi is like the book, ladylike with some horrifying tricks up her well-tailored sleeve. Unfortunately for all of us,   A.S.A. Harrison will not be writing any more books,  as she died shortly after publishing “The Silent Wife”.  This novel may be entitled “The Silent Wife” , but the quiet psychological tension shouts from every page.  If you enjoyed “Gone, Girlby Gillian Flynn, then you will most likely enjoy this book. I will say that this is a perhaps more mature (if that is the right word) version of “Gone, Girl”.  Jodi might not be as twisty and naughty as Amy from “Gone, Girl”, but she sure does give her a run for her money with her clever, passive aggressive psychological mind games.  Game on!

The Falmouth Memorial Library owns a copy of “The Silent Wife” in its collection.