Trophy Wife

by Peter Turnbull

Virginia Woolley stands to inherit eight million pounds upon her husband’s death. Her husband, Maurice thirty years her elder, drowns his unhappy knowledge of his wife’s infidelity in bottles of whisky, waiting for his life to draw to an uneventful close. Like with her other marriages, Virginia must do something about her situation. Virginia meets a young landscape architect who, out of work, has no means to support himself other than the dole. Christopher Elms finds himself falling in love with the wealthy seductress, to the point where he insists that in order to stay with Virginia, he must kill her husband. A team of highly skilled detectives takes up the murder case, with the help of Maurice Woolley’s sister, whose suspicions of Virginia were strong from the start. Are Virginia’s carefully laid-out plans enough to free her from her husband, and place Christopher in jail, letting this black widow off with another easy fortune?

288 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2005

About the author

Peter Turnbull is the author of nineteen previous novels and numerous works of short fiction. He worked for many years as a social worker in Glasgow before returning to his native Yorkshire.

Reviews

[Avid Series Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trophy Wife by Peter Turnbull is set in late 20th-century England. Virginia Woolley is in her thirties, clever and greedy, with an uncommon hobby: marry a much older rich man, then kill him. She got away with murdering her first rich husband (Henry Woostencroft), now she's plotting to be rid of Maurice Woolley (9 million pound lottery winner).

Modus operandi: Seduce a young man, convince him the only barrier to endless sexual bliss together is the husband, lead him to the conclusion that he should eliminate the barrier, ensure she has an ironclad alibi, collect and plant evidence to frame him.

Second time around, the police notice the pattern, dig deeper for details of Virginia's (nee Vera's) life, figure out exactly how she did it. But can they prove her guilt to a jury?