"MAN AND WIFE" by Andrew Klavan (B+)

This book is a very enjoyable read with its many threads tied together to my satisfaction. My only small quibble would be with one part of the ending, but this is more my desire for a logical ending than a realistic one. My wife loved this book and recommended it to me. Klavan, a prolific author, has written many novels under this, his real name, as well as under other names. 

It starts with an ominous forward that says, "If I didn't love her so much, maybe there wouldn't have been a murder" and then goes on to say, "If I seen things more clearly, maybe a death could have been avoided." So, we start off with a wistful look back in time, but no clue as to who died or for what reason. Certainly an attention grabber. 

This is a mystery novel that starts off like a rocket of interest with its story about Peter Blue, a young man in a small, upstate New York village, who suddenly and inexplicably goes on a rampage and sets fire to a church and confronts the police officer with a gun. Yet everyone in the community stands behind him for his innocent, childish personality, and they express a strong desire for his rehabilitation. The citizens, including the young man's minister, all go to the head of the town sanatarium and request that he be admitted for observation.

The head of the sanatarium is a doctor who had come from a prominent local family. He had tried life in the fast lane in New York City along with a beautiful fiancé who came from an equally prominent NYC family. Yet, he is unhappy and something is slowly eating at his innards. Somewhat socially backward, he is never sure that he fits in with the high power NYC scene. He has an older sister living nearby who suffers from severe depression, but the two have remained very close. 

One day he meets Marie, a waitress at a local restaurant and he falls instantly in love with her. She is a very simple girl who will not discuss her prior life. She is lovely, more so than anyone he has ever had a relationship with, and she also falls head over heels for him. He dumps both his fiancé and his NYC practice and heads back to his home town to run the local sanatarium, where they, like his deceased parents, soon become pillars of the community. Years have passed and they have several young kids, a lovely home on a quiet street, and a relationship that still has passion and devotion. Always a nerd, he still cannot believe that a girl as lovely as Marie actually loves a guy like him.

Ringing in his ears is the advice of his sister, who had met Marie and had loved her from the start. She gives her brother some sage advice: "Take her on her own terms, and don't go digging into her past, as you will regret it." 

Will he follow his sister's advice? Are men ever smart enough to listen to a woman? You already know the answer.

Enjoy, enjoy a good read whenever you can. Carl