Book review: The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives by Elizabeth Arnott

By Philippa Tracy

It’s 1966 and a hot summer in the fictional town of Berryview, California. Behind the ubiquitous white picket fences, there is small town gossip, chauvinistic attitudes and a string of horrific murders. The victims are all women. Are they connected? Five years earlier, the Heatwave Killer had murdered seven women in the Bay Area of California. His ex-wife, Beverley, still can’t grasp how she fits into the story. But who better to catch another serial killer than three women who have been married to one? Especially if the police don’t seem that interested in joining the dots.

Three women with a deadly connection

Beverley, Margot and Elsie were once married to serial killers. They are now friends. Their co-operation with the police, to get a conviction, has not stopped people pointing fingers and judging them. Why didn’t they know what their husbands were up to? Beverley, a former model, and a mother of two, is now hyper vigilant; she keeps a scrap book detailing every local crime against women. Margot, a former politician’s wife, who once hosted glamorous parties at her house in the Hamptons, is now significantly poorer but refuses to feel guilty, or see herself as a victim. She’s trying to move on. And Elsie, a put-upon, personal assistant to a newspaper editor, who longs to be a writer, is stuck taking messages, organising meetings and filling her boss’ drinks cabinet.

Beverley has just finished making a speech at the LAPD’s annual gala when a police officer interrupts the Chief to tell him they have found a body, and he’s “not going to want to miss this one. It’s … unusual.” But the head of the California Major Crimes Investigation Unit insists on looking in the wrong direction for answers. Beverley, Margot and Elsie are determined to do something about it. Beverley has her scrap book and a relationship with someone high up in the LAPD. Margot uses her own connections to get close to the evidence. Elsie makes herself vulnerable to enlist the help of the new female reporter on the newspaper. What these three women have in common is that they have all shared a bed with a killer and they all believe they can solve the crimes before the cops do.

Challenging a culture of male violence

The women are smart and likeable. Margot enjoys using sex to tip the “scales of power.” They think they can profile the killer, but they have to take risks to get to the truth. Beverley goes on TV to warn women and then has to question “how the opinion that male violence is a danger to women can be controversial.” Elsie doesn’t trust the police and thinks the LAPD chief, is “as bent as a right angle.” They are all cynical about how the media report these stories. How many column inches are given to the murderers, the men? When women are given space, it is usually only “to make clear that they had brought their own murders upon themselves.”

These women may have been “easily played” once, but not this time. When a male lover tells Beverley not to feel bad because a “housewife can’t solve a murder,” the reader knows that such a view requires a decisive riposte. And this novel delivers. The period details are delicious: Lucky Strikes, mini skirts, pantsuits, aqua-blue eye shadow, bleach-blond hair, and Margot’s gold Oleg Cassini dress. If you fancy a compelling feminist crime novel, this is a real page-turner.