The Man Who Loved His Wife - (Femmes Fatales) by Vera Caspary (Paperback)

About the Book

A jealous husband frames his wife for his own suicide so she'll never love again.

Book Synopsis

A husband falls into a psychological spiral in a novel by the author of Laura, "an expert at suspense and suspicion" (The New York Times).

When Fletcher marries Elaine, his second wife, nineteen years his junior, he can't imagine a more passionate union. Then an illness destroys his confidence, and all he can picture is her next affair. He keeps a secret diary of his fantasized suspicions, making his impending suicide look like murder...

With what Graham Greene once called her "devilish cunning," Vera Caspary reveals, with sure psychological insight, the strange desires that hide in the hearts of seemingly respectable people. Out of a web of love, jealousy, guilt, and hate, she has woven one of her most suspenseful thrillers.

"Caspary writes emotive entertainments, part romance, part suspense, about women destined to kill or doomed to die."--Kirkus Reviews

"A beautiful job."--The Boston Herald

The Man Who Loved His Wife is part of the Femmes Fatales series, featuring the best of women's writing in the classic pulp genres of the mid-20th century. From mystery to hard-boiled noir to taboo lesbian romance, these rediscovered queens of pulp offer subversive perspectives on a turbulent era with such titles as Now, Voyager; Stella Dallas; Bunny Lake is Missing; The Girls in 3-B; and more.

Review Quotes

"Miss Caspary's main theme, whether in a murder mystery, drama or musical comedy, was the working woman and her right to lead her own life, to be independent." --The New York Times

"We forget how many advances Caspary brought to the genre. First, her feminist themes were far ahead of her time. Second, she delivered a stylistic tour de force." --The Huffington Post

About the Author

Vera Caspary (1904-1987) is best known for her skillfully crafted and psychologically complex murder mysteries. Several of her books were made into films, including Laura, Bedelia, and The Man Who Loved His Wife. She was also a playwright and screenwriter, and was an important figure in the radical political causes of her day.