The Stolen Marriage
A Gripping 1940s Historical Mystery
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3.8 • 5 Ratings
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- €4.99
Publisher Description
'Fans of Jodi Picoult's style will love how Diane Chamberlain writes' – Candis
Set in 1940s America, The Stolen Marriage is a compelling mystery novel about a young woman trapped in her marriage. From Diane Chamberlain, the bestselling author of The Silent Sister and The Last House on the Street.
In 1944, Tess DeMello abruptly ends her engagement to the love of her life, marries a mysterious stranger and moves to Hickory, North Carolina. Her new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night – and Tess quickly comes to realize that she is now trapped in a strange and loveless marriage.
The people of Hickory love and respect Henry and see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain. What does everyone know about Henry that she does not?
When a polio epidemic strikes the town, taking the lives of some of its children, the townspeople band together to quickly build a polio hospital. Tess, who has a nursing degree, bucks Henry’s wishes and begins to work at the hospital.
As Henry’s actions grow more baffling and alarming by the day, can Tess untangle her husband’s mysterious behaviour – and save her own life?
'I love Diane's writing' – Cathy Kelly, author of The Year That Changed Everything
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Chamberlain (Necessary Lies) conveys a strong sense of daily life in the American South during WWII, and the concurrent devastation of the polio epidemic, in this well-crafted crime-tinged tale of a marriage of convenience. Theresa "Tess" DeMello, a 23-year-old nurse-in-training, and Henry "Hank" Kraft meet via a chance encounter during an unchaperoned trip to Washington, D.C.; alcohol and bad decision-making result in Tess's pregnancy and their subsequent wedding. Tess relocates from Baltimore to Hank's hometown of Hickory, N.C., where his family owns a furniture factory. One morning, Tess agrees to drive her sister-in-law, Lucy, on an errand in an attempt to improve their strained relationship. Lucy hints at dark secrets in Henry's life that Tess is not privy to, and requests a detour to deliver a mysterious envelope a detour with fatal consequences. Details like Tess's Catholic background, casual cultural biases, and the balance she strikes between independence and suppression of her own personality, in response to her husband and in-laws, enrich the story.
