Lori M. (lormac) reviewed on + 120 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
** spoiler alert ** God, this was an awful book. I would not even give it one star. It has such promise based on the book jacket and the blurbs - mail order bride, serial killer, plot twists - and it fails to deliver on every single point. The plot is total nonsense; there are no plot twists; and the character's behavior is completely unbelievable. I hated the ending so much that I wrote several alternate endings. If you inted to read the book, despite my warning, read no further as there are spoilers ahead. If you also read it, and cannot believe that it actually got as much press as it has, maybe you will enjoy my alternate endings:
Alternate Ending Number 1: Antonio doesnt just wound Catherine he kills her, and Ralph walks in just as her lifeless body hits the floor. He attacks his son and the two struggle for a while, drawing the attention of Mrs. Larsen. She runs and gets a kitchen knife, but by the time she gets back, Ralph is dead also, laying on the floor at the feet of a weeping Antonio. Mrs. Larsen plunges the knife into Antonios back, and watches him sink to his knees. She exits the room, wiping her hands on her apron.
Alternate Ending Number 2: Ralph feels really guilty about killing Antonio, and blames it on Catherine. He cant stand the idea that she will inherit everything, so he waits until she has given birth a boy - and then kills her, claiming that she died in childbirth. Now he will raise the child who is innocent and will inherit his entire estate. To make sure the child has proper values, he burns the villa and moves back with his son to the little farmhouse.
Alternate Ending Number 3: Mrs. Larsen cannot believe her eyes Mr. Truitt has forgiven this harlot who tried to kill him. She loses all respect for him, and poisons them both one evening by serving them tainted clams. They die of food poisoning, and she watches them writhe in agony, while she sits in a rocking chair, saying, Hows my tasty food now?
Alternate Ending Number 4: It turns out that Ralph Truitts first wife never died. Ralph brought her back from Chicago and imprisoned her in the attic of the villa where she has gone mad. She creeps around in the attic, listening to the activities that are going on below her. She reveals herself to Antonio when he returns and Antonio tells her to stay in the attic until he has killed Ralph. She overhears Catherine talk about taking over her garden, and hears that Catherine is pregnant, and decides that she does not want to wait any longer. Just at the moment that she comes to that conclusion, Antonio begins his struggle with Catherine. She comes out from a hidden bookcase and kills Catherine herself. While Antonio is trying to decide what to do with Catherines body, Ralph comes in, and the first wife kills him as well. Antonio inherits everything, and sells everything in the estate and then moves with his mother to Italy where she regains her sanity and he meets a lovely and wholesome native girl who restores his purity and they live happily ever after.
Alternate Ending Number 5: Catherine survives the attack, and watches Antonio die in the lake. This is working out just great, she thinks. She continues to pretend that she loves Ralph and that they will live happily ever after, but really, she is just biding her time. She waits until she gives birth to a girl, and then she poisons Ralph one evening with a massive dose of poison to make it look like a heart attack. She sells everything and moves to Palm Beach, Florida with her daughter so that she will never see snow again.
Alternate Ending Number 6: Ralph Truitt and Mrs. Larsen have been lovers since his return from Europe. They are both crazy as bedbugs, and have lured dozens of girls to Wisconsin with the advertisement in the newspaper, and tortured and killed each of them. Then they cook and eat their body parts, feeding some of the pieces to the new arrivals as part of their insane plans. Ralphs first wife was their first victim, and they killed her in front of Antonio who has blocked the horrific memory from his conscious mind. But upon his return to the villa, he slowly begins to remember flashes of the murder. Antonio realizes the depth of his love for Catherine and tries to lure his father away from killing Catherine by providing his father with other possible victims, such as the local girl that he brought to dinner, but it is clear that Ralph cannot be dissuaded from killing and having Mrs. Larsen cook Catherine. Antonio sends Catherine away to keep her safe, and then kills his father and Mrs. Larsen one evening during a blizzard by trapping them outside until they die of exposure. While he watches them freeze, he enjoys a nice hot bowl of broth that Mrs. Larsen had been cooking before he trapped them outside. The next day he goes to remove their frozen bodies to the ice house and when he drags them in their he finds Catherines mutilated body. When he realizes what was in the broth that he ate the night before, he runs howling out of the ice house onto the frozen lake where he falls through the ice and drowns.
Alternate Ending Number 7: Several weeks after Antonios death, when things are just getting back to normal, the doorbell rings in the afternoon when Ralph is at work. Catherine answers it and a lovely woman stands at the door. She is Catherines mother who was not actually dead. She asks Catherine where her sister is. Catherine explains that her sister is probably dead by now, and her mother listens, appalled as Catherine describes her sisters condition and the hovel where she was living. Catherine concludes the story by telling her about how she handed her sister some money and her coat and then walked out, leaving her sister to die alone, cold and hungry and in pain. Her mother is shocked and puts a small derringer from her purse and shoots Catherine as revenge for her beloved younger daughters death. Then she leaves. Ralph returns after work to find Catherine near death in the parlor. Catherine explains that she deserves to die because she always hated her sister who was such a goody-goody and couldnt even manage to be a half-way decedent prostitute. Then she dies in Ralphs arms.
Alternate Ending Number 8: It turns out that Ralphs father never died. He faked his death to get Ralph to return from Europe. He hated Ralphs new wife, and her Eye-tal- yan ways so he did not tell Ralph that he was still alive. After Ralphs wife ran off with the piano teacher, he tracked her down and killed her. Then he returned, grew a beard and began to pose as Mr. Larsen. He became disillusioned with Ralph, who thought about sex all the time, and then went so far as to advertise for a new wife from Chicago instead of marrying one of the lovely, wholesome Wisconsin girls from town. Ralphs father got really annoyed when he had to shoot his favorite horse because Ralph was such a horses ass and insisted on taking a flimsy carriage to the station to pick up Catherine despite the forecast of a snow. He waited and waited, not wanting to confront his son, but when Mrs. Larsen told him that Catherine was pregnant, he realized that his entire fortune would be in danger of passing to the child of a degenerate strumpet. Ralphs father shaved off his beard and met Ralph as he approached the house where Catherine and Antonio were struggling. Ralph was so relieved to see his father and embraced him, and told him that he would mend his ways and get rid of Catherine and start over. The two men entered the house together, and killed Catherine and Antonio, and buried their bodies. Ralphs father decided it was easier to continue to pretend to be Mr. Larsen, and, besides, he had grown fond of Mrs. Larsen. Ralph married a local widow with two children and moved them into the villa where
Alternate Ending Number 1: Antonio doesnt just wound Catherine he kills her, and Ralph walks in just as her lifeless body hits the floor. He attacks his son and the two struggle for a while, drawing the attention of Mrs. Larsen. She runs and gets a kitchen knife, but by the time she gets back, Ralph is dead also, laying on the floor at the feet of a weeping Antonio. Mrs. Larsen plunges the knife into Antonios back, and watches him sink to his knees. She exits the room, wiping her hands on her apron.
Alternate Ending Number 2: Ralph feels really guilty about killing Antonio, and blames it on Catherine. He cant stand the idea that she will inherit everything, so he waits until she has given birth a boy - and then kills her, claiming that she died in childbirth. Now he will raise the child who is innocent and will inherit his entire estate. To make sure the child has proper values, he burns the villa and moves back with his son to the little farmhouse.
Alternate Ending Number 3: Mrs. Larsen cannot believe her eyes Mr. Truitt has forgiven this harlot who tried to kill him. She loses all respect for him, and poisons them both one evening by serving them tainted clams. They die of food poisoning, and she watches them writhe in agony, while she sits in a rocking chair, saying, Hows my tasty food now?
Alternate Ending Number 4: It turns out that Ralph Truitts first wife never died. Ralph brought her back from Chicago and imprisoned her in the attic of the villa where she has gone mad. She creeps around in the attic, listening to the activities that are going on below her. She reveals herself to Antonio when he returns and Antonio tells her to stay in the attic until he has killed Ralph. She overhears Catherine talk about taking over her garden, and hears that Catherine is pregnant, and decides that she does not want to wait any longer. Just at the moment that she comes to that conclusion, Antonio begins his struggle with Catherine. She comes out from a hidden bookcase and kills Catherine herself. While Antonio is trying to decide what to do with Catherines body, Ralph comes in, and the first wife kills him as well. Antonio inherits everything, and sells everything in the estate and then moves with his mother to Italy where she regains her sanity and he meets a lovely and wholesome native girl who restores his purity and they live happily ever after.
Alternate Ending Number 5: Catherine survives the attack, and watches Antonio die in the lake. This is working out just great, she thinks. She continues to pretend that she loves Ralph and that they will live happily ever after, but really, she is just biding her time. She waits until she gives birth to a girl, and then she poisons Ralph one evening with a massive dose of poison to make it look like a heart attack. She sells everything and moves to Palm Beach, Florida with her daughter so that she will never see snow again.
Alternate Ending Number 6: Ralph Truitt and Mrs. Larsen have been lovers since his return from Europe. They are both crazy as bedbugs, and have lured dozens of girls to Wisconsin with the advertisement in the newspaper, and tortured and killed each of them. Then they cook and eat their body parts, feeding some of the pieces to the new arrivals as part of their insane plans. Ralphs first wife was their first victim, and they killed her in front of Antonio who has blocked the horrific memory from his conscious mind. But upon his return to the villa, he slowly begins to remember flashes of the murder. Antonio realizes the depth of his love for Catherine and tries to lure his father away from killing Catherine by providing his father with other possible victims, such as the local girl that he brought to dinner, but it is clear that Ralph cannot be dissuaded from killing and having Mrs. Larsen cook Catherine. Antonio sends Catherine away to keep her safe, and then kills his father and Mrs. Larsen one evening during a blizzard by trapping them outside until they die of exposure. While he watches them freeze, he enjoys a nice hot bowl of broth that Mrs. Larsen had been cooking before he trapped them outside. The next day he goes to remove their frozen bodies to the ice house and when he drags them in their he finds Catherines mutilated body. When he realizes what was in the broth that he ate the night before, he runs howling out of the ice house onto the frozen lake where he falls through the ice and drowns.
Alternate Ending Number 7: Several weeks after Antonios death, when things are just getting back to normal, the doorbell rings in the afternoon when Ralph is at work. Catherine answers it and a lovely woman stands at the door. She is Catherines mother who was not actually dead. She asks Catherine where her sister is. Catherine explains that her sister is probably dead by now, and her mother listens, appalled as Catherine describes her sisters condition and the hovel where she was living. Catherine concludes the story by telling her about how she handed her sister some money and her coat and then walked out, leaving her sister to die alone, cold and hungry and in pain. Her mother is shocked and puts a small derringer from her purse and shoots Catherine as revenge for her beloved younger daughters death. Then she leaves. Ralph returns after work to find Catherine near death in the parlor. Catherine explains that she deserves to die because she always hated her sister who was such a goody-goody and couldnt even manage to be a half-way decedent prostitute. Then she dies in Ralphs arms.
Alternate Ending Number 8: It turns out that Ralphs father never died. He faked his death to get Ralph to return from Europe. He hated Ralphs new wife, and her Eye-tal- yan ways so he did not tell Ralph that he was still alive. After Ralphs wife ran off with the piano teacher, he tracked her down and killed her. Then he returned, grew a beard and began to pose as Mr. Larsen. He became disillusioned with Ralph, who thought about sex all the time, and then went so far as to advertise for a new wife from Chicago instead of marrying one of the lovely, wholesome Wisconsin girls from town. Ralphs father got really annoyed when he had to shoot his favorite horse because Ralph was such a horses ass and insisted on taking a flimsy carriage to the station to pick up Catherine despite the forecast of a snow. He waited and waited, not wanting to confront his son, but when Mrs. Larsen told him that Catherine was pregnant, he realized that his entire fortune would be in danger of passing to the child of a degenerate strumpet. Ralphs father shaved off his beard and met Ralph as he approached the house where Catherine and Antonio were struggling. Ralph was so relieved to see his father and embraced him, and told him that he would mend his ways and get rid of Catherine and start over. The two men entered the house together, and killed Catherine and Antonio, and buried their bodies. Ralphs father decided it was easier to continue to pretend to be Mr. Larsen, and, besides, he had grown fond of Mrs. Larsen. Ralph married a local widow with two children and moved them into the villa where
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