It’s a sweltering summer in 1966 California, where a trio of women—Beverley, Elsie and Margot—take comfort in a tight-knit friendship, a uniquely life-affirming bond born of shared horror and despair.
All three were married to convicted serial killers. And in Elizabeth Arnott’s tense, psychological thriller-cum-mystery, The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives, the women are striving to shed their past trauma and envision fulfilling, empowering futures.
But several years on, they’re not entirely sure what that might look like. People stare at and whisper about them, wondering how they could’ve missed the signs—a question they ask themselves, too. Arnott, an award-winning journalist and author of historical fiction as Lizzie Pook, explores the fallout of gender-based violence with nuance and care, via well-developed characters who contend with guilt and shame as they navigate inner landscapes dotted with anger and grief.
Beverley, a former model and mother of two, maintains a scrapbook of crime articles and letters from women who wrote to her about their own terrible husbands. British transplant Elsie, an aspiring reporter, knows “Beverley’s need to collect and categorize bad news” is her attempt “to stay in control, to stop more awful things from happening.” The fabulous Margot focuses on mingling with the Los Angeles elite at seemingly endless soirees and “has never felt guilty about what her husband did. What was guilt but a useless artifact from the past?”
Despite their varied viewpoints, when multiple young women are found dead in their area, the friends all become convinced the crimes are related: There’s another serial killer out there. The police are skeptical and unresponsive, so the trio resolve to ferret out connections that can’t be ignored. They build a profile and conduct an investigation with tenacity and determination. Can they convince the police, without drawing the attention of the killer before he strikes again? Fans of true crime, historical fiction and slow-burn suspense rife with clever misdirects will love The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives and the insightful, justice-seeking women at its heart.