The Man Who Loved His Wife

by Vera Caspary

With what Graham Greene once called her "devilish cunning," Vera Caspary offers one of her most suspenseful thrillers in this tale of love, jealousy, guilt, and hate.

When Fletcher marries Elaine, his second wife nineteen years his junior, he can't imagine a more passionate union. Then an illness destroys his confidence, and all he can picture is her next affair. He keeps a secret diary of his fantasized suspicions, making his impending suicide look like murder. . . .

Vera Caspary (1899–1987) is the author of many books including Laura and Bedelia.

Genres: Fiction, Noir, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Classics

240 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 1966

About the author

Vera Caspary, an acclaimed American writer of novels, plays, short stories and screenplays, was born in Chicago in 1899. Her writing talent shone from a young age and, following the death of her father, her work became the primary source of income for Caspary and her mother. A young woman when the Great Depression hit America, Caspary soon developed a keen interest in Socialist causes, and joined the Communist Party under a pseudonym. Although she soon left the party after becoming disillusioned, Caspary's leftist leanings would later come back to haunt her when she was greylisted from Hollywood in the 1950s for Communist sympathies. Caspary spent this period of self-described 'purgatory' alternately in Europe and America with her husband, Igee Goldsmith, in order to find work. After Igee's death in 1964, Caspary returned permanently to New York, where she wrote a further eight titles. Vera Caspary died in 1987 and is survived by a literary legacy of strong independent female characters.

Reviews

[Carla Remy · Rating 5 out of 5]

12/2015

So well plotted and well written. I love
Vera Caspary. Apparently, Wilkie Collins was her biggest influence, and I see it in this: he loved bizarre disabilities.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five or so years earlier, Fletcher Strode, a very wealthy man in his early 40s, divorced his estranged wife when he fell in love with Elaine, a beautiful and much younger woman. The day after the divorce was final, he married her. But trouble happened not too long afterward. Fletcher got throat cancer and had to undergo a laryngectomy. Fletcher's once booming voice was no more and he felt far less of a man for its loss. He was giving up on life, but couldn't face the fact that another man might possess Elaine - the idea torments him almost as much as does the loss of his voice.

The book opens with a diary given to him by his wife for Christmas. He waited patiently for New Years so he could make his first entry. Some of those diary entries are scattered throughout the novel. Is what he writes the truth or his imagination?

Caspary tightens the tension wire almost from the very beginning and doesn't let up. It seems to me that Vera Caspary should be better known and more widely read. This title has only 57 ratings as I write. How can that be? Noir readers should be after her titles. This is only my 2nd read and I wonder even at myself. This is a strong 4-stars and I'm off to explore more titles by this author.

[Jim Dooley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have found a new addition to my "Favorite Mystery Authors" list. Her descriptions always delight, she is careful not to rush through plot points so quickly that characterization suffers, there are plenty of believable surprises, and I finish the work satisfied that I've had a most enjoyable read.

I've mentioned before that Vera Caspary writes much as I believe Fitzgerald would have done if he had been interested in creating noir mysteries. The narrative pulls me along through settings that linger in the mind. Modern readers may balk at the idea of a period piece being too proper and bland...and they are in for quite a surprise as the writer does not hold much back while still remaining proper enough to allow for display on the bookshelf.

The writer takes an already intriguing "dog in the manger" plot ("If I can't have her, no one will"), weaves in an eerie plan to frame for murder, and then proceeds to turn everything topsy-turvy. If you enjoy dark film noir mysteries, this is a tale you should find to be most enjoyable.

[Monique · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would've been 4 stars but for the ending, which I had so many problems with, plausibility being just one. An intriguing read nonetheless.

[Kit · Rating 4 out of 5]

going to be reading more Caspary!

[Rosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat like a gender-reversed Gone Girl, with a dishonest diary. It's not Laura, but it's still pretty good. Real ambivalence—the love and hate spouses can have for each other—is conveyed.
There was little sense of being set in the mid '60s, except for the son-in-law's preference for Thelonious Monk. It didn't feel particularly timely. For bourgeois people like this, I guess change wasn't in the air at all.
I didn't like the ending at all. Not at all.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man commits suicide and leaves a diary accusing his wife of murdering him so she'll never be able to love another man.

[Vera M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this as part of a challenge read to find an author with the same name (first or last) as me. This is the one I could find to borrow from the library. I was pleasantly surprised that I did like it. It was intriguing and didn't take too long to get into. There was a lot of set up and wondering what would happen in the end. Though the ending did feel a little rushed and less attentive than the set up of it.

[andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. The language was definitely of a different era an dit was fun to read something so aesthetically different. I don't read alot of mysteries from that time period or noirish at all so I appreciated the different feel. However the ending SUCKED. Thus my 4 star rating fell to a 3.
I have more books in my queue from Caspary and I am looking forward to reading them...just hoping for a better finish to them.

[Natori · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, and I did until the last 20 pages or so. It seems to end too quickly--the complexity of the plot and character development deserved a more nuanced and gradual ending. Given the book as it is, it's hard to say what Caspary was most trying to convey by the outcome. Worth the read, though, for discussion, and thematic comparisons to The Blue Gardenia.

[Banuta · Rating 2 out of 5]

The conceit was great. A man plots his suicide and can't bear the thought of his wife touching another man so starts a diary which frames her for murder. And then.. and then all the characters are so unlikable that by the last third I skimmed and skimmed to find out what happens and shut the book disgruntled. Sorry, Vera, don't like your world view.

[Susanne Doremus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointed with the ending...

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

at times i almost laughed out at how the guy obsessed but I was entertained

[Samia Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The OG Gone Girl with beautifully written hideous characters.