A Stranger's Wife

Title: A Stranger's Wife (1999)
Author: Maggie Osborne (Warner)
Period: American-Western (1875-6 AZ/Colorado Territories)
Grade: D+

That's it? Some of the review for A Stranger's Wife implied it was the best thing this side of Flowers from the Storm. It kinda sucked.

Say you are running to become the first Governor of Colorado? And say your wife has "disappeared" after a house fire killed her child? What do you do? 'Cause I don't think even Karl Rove would have suggested searching women's prisons to find your wife's doppelganger and then blackmailing said doppelganger into masquerading as your missing wife until after the election. At which time you'll send her off to Europe and create a cover story your wife "died". Scratch that. Machiavelli would have though that was over the top.

If you can ignore the ridiculous premise (which I can't), Osborne offers an interesting and complex heroine. Lily is no virgin and no shrinking violet. She ran away from home with one man, took up with an outlaw, has an illegitimate daughter, and did time for murder. If she wasn't involved in a stupid, nonsensical plot with a vapid hero I could dig her. Quinn is a spineless and bland hero who allows himself to be cajoled by his political advisor into supporting policy (mining deregulation) and committing acts (see doppelganger convict wife) he knows to be immoral. He isn't present as a complex politician trying to make necessary compromises, he is a pawn.

The how and why of Lily and Quinn's romance is pretty pointless. They are in lust from the start and strike a bargain to become lovers. After some pretty watered-down sex scenes they fall in love. That's it. I'd expect that sort of hash from a naive heroine, but Lily has been around the block. She spends the remainder of the novel selflessly hiding her love so as not to complicate their agreed upon parting and hamper his governor bid. That she falls for such a twit makes her less likeable.

The subplot with the missing wife is so hackneyed it defies description and turns into a mini-gothic when Lily suspects that her lover is trying to kill her. Also, when Quinn sends for Lily's daughter he announces he was planned pass her off as his wife's niece. Even though his wife's life-long melancholy is, in-part, because of the childhood deaths of her siblings.

A Stranger's Wife is one WTF? moment after another.