Pisces51 answers “Does anyone know why this is called the...”

Sobia asked this question about The Silent Wife (Will Trent, #10):

Does anyone know why this is called the silent wife? I read it all and loved it but I am baffled by the name

Pisces51 I just posted my review and ironically I answered this question. I have always puzzled over Slaughter's titles, and had fun figuring them out.
THE SIL…moreI just posted my review and ironically I answered this question. I have always puzzled over Slaughter's titles, and had fun figuring them out.
THE SILENT WIFE, interestingly enough, seems to stem from both certain dynamics from Sara's past with Jeffery but also her present with Will. Specifically, at one point Sara is lamenting the fact that Will's "silence" is driving her nuts, pretty much a common theme in their relationship. Thus the "silent wife" reference initially refers indirectly to Will in the following narrative from the book:

"Sara did not want a silent husband. She sure as hell was not going to be a silent wife."

Later on in the novel, when the reader is following the dynamics of Sara and Jeffery's relationship both prior to and following the divorce (a period not previously explored in the series), it is Jeffery who is expressing his conviction that his philandering was secondary to Sara's depriving him of her time and attention, and specifically denying him the sympathetic listening ear and the reassuring feedback of a friend and lover (sharing her concerns as well):

"He laid out all of his cards on the table. “I thought I was marrying my lover. I ended up with a silent wife.”

Then finally, the author deploys the connotation of "the silent wife" in an entirely different venue, specifically as an oversimplification of the underlying motive of our serial killer who has been operating under the radar of the authorities for so long:

"He’d wanted to create his own macabre version of a silent wife".

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