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Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada
My virtue is that I say what I think, my vice that what I think doesn't amount to much.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

The Silent Wife

I chose this as the first audiobook to listen to on my new treadmill because I figured it would be easy to follow without the need to flip back to parts I didn't grasp. 
Jodi and Todd have lived together for twenty years and are comfortable in their waterfront condo in Chicago. He is a property developer, she is a part-time therapist. She keeps house and makes creative meals for him and he is the primary breadwinner and they both seem content with the affluent life they have made for themselves. Then the relationship goes off the rails when Todd begins an affair with the young daughter of his best friend. Jodi reacts robotically to the betrayal; she doesn't confront the cheating s.o.b. or even discuss it with him and appears to be in denial. It's business as usual for Jodi until she discovers that Todd plans to marry the silly young thing and that in Illinois she will not be entitled to a red cent because she and Todd never tied the knot. When she receives a letter from Todd's lawyer telling her to vacate the condo Jodi swings into action to protect what she feels she's entitled to after two decades of  living with the obnoxious Todd.
Both Todd and Jodi are shallow, self indulgent types and frankly I didn't care what happened to either of them. The book chugs along slowly, the murder occurs and it comes to an abrupt and ambiguous closing. As a treadmill book it hit the spot but it was not the "psychological thriller" I'd been led to expect. I don't feel guilty about spending time on a lightweight novel because I was burning calories at the same time.

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