From New York Times bestselling author, Lauren Willig, comes this scandalous novel set in the Gilded Age full of family secrets, affairs, and even murder.

Annabelle and Bayard Van Duyvil live a charmed life: he’s the scion of an old Knickerbocker family, she grew up in a Tudor house in England, they had a fairytale romance in London, they have three-year-old twins on whom they dote, and he’s recreated her family home on the banks of the Hudson and named it Illyria. Yes, there are rumors that she’s having an affair with the architect, but rumors are rumors and people will gossip. But then Bayard is found dead with a knife in his chest on the evening of their Twelfth Night Ball to celebrate the New Year 1899, and Annabelle is missing, presumed drowned; the newspapers go mad.

Bayard’s sister Janie forms an unlikely alliance with a reporter to try to uncover the truth, convinced that her brother would never have killed his wife, that it must be a third party. But the more she learns of her brother and his wife, the more everything she thought she knew about them starts to unravel. What were her brother and his wife, really? And why did her brother die with the name George on his lips?

 

Lauren Willig is also the author of the New York Times bestselling Pink Carnation series and a RITA Award-winner for Best Regency Historical for The Mischief of the Mistletoe. A graduate of Yale University, she has a graduate degree in English history from Harvard and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She lives in New York City, where she now writes full time.

 

"A dark and scintillating tale." -Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan's Tale

"A gorgeous gem of a novel." -Karen White, New York Times bestselling author of The Night the Lights Went Out
"The pages fly fast and furious in this thoroughly engaging, suspenseful yarn." ―Booklist
"Willig has a knack for creating sympathetic characters and fully fleshed settings, adding some juicy plot twists to this atmospheric period piece." ― Kirkus Reviews
"A dark, romantic mystery full of twists and turns." ― Library Journal
"Full of intrigue and suspense, Willig weaves an intricate tapestry of romance and betrayal. Rich in period detail and a plot that keeps you guessing, The English Wife, is a wonderful read."-- Alyson Richman, Internationally bestselling author of The Velvet Hours and The Lost Wife
"Lauren Willig absolutely delivers in this deliciously-paced, intriguing tale that is part mystery, part love story, and part family drama of the most emotionally-riveting kind. Brimming with evocative historical details and hauntingly good." ― Susan Meissner, Award-winning author of A Bridge Across the Ocean
“The English Wife is an atmospheric, instantly absorbing page-turner. Lauren Willig delivers a richly detailed, expertly plotted novel that will instantly transport you back in time. This novel has it all―an intriguing mystery, a love affair for the ages and secrets worth dying for.” ―Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author of The Weight of Silence and Not A Sound
"An elegant page turner that kept me guessing. A masterful story that transported me back in time. A great, great Gothic." -M.J. Rose, New York Times bestselling author of The Library of Light and Shadow