The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives
Encyclopedia
The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives is a novel by Sarah Strohmeyer
. It was published in 2005 by Penguin Group.
John's new (and second) wife, Clare Stark, has difficulty settling into life at Hunting Hills. Once a hot-shot journalist, Claire is now forced to be a stay-at-home wife as her new husband has a bad history with the only newspaper in town, and Claire has a romantic history with the chief editor of that paper. The other wives aren't so welcoming, and John's mother disapproves of Claire. Claire befriends Marti, who goes out of her way to invite Claire to their exclusive book club and throws a party in Claire and John's honour, but only as a ploy to get John into bed. Claire, none the wiser, continues to try and make friends with the other Hunting Hills wives.
At Claire's first book club meeting, one of the wives, Karen Goss, calls for help from the police station. As everyone except Claire has been drinking, Claire drives down with Marti and Boots, John's ex-wife, to help her out. At the police station, confesses that she is confused about her sexuality, a result of her husband forcing her to commit sexual acts with other women. In an intimate rendezvous with her husband's secretary in Edgewater Park, Karen became the victim of a hate crime against homosexuals and was taken down to the police station to give a statement. She begs Claire to pull strings with Eric Schmaltz, the editor of the Cleveland Citizen newspaper, so that her name does not appear in the papers as she does not want to humiliate her family.
Claire agrees to help Karen, but in a meeting with Eric, she is blackmailed into writing up an interview with a Hunting Hill wife who was convicted of manslaughter. Knowing how much her husband hatese the idea of writing for the Cleveland Citizen, Claire devises a plan to get back at Eric for the blackmailing.
Meanwhile, Jim Denton, Marti's husband, is caught in a compromising situation with Lisa, Marti's best friend, whom Jim is having an affair with. Having taken 4 viagra pills, Jim's erection refuses to die down and he misses his meeting with an important client at the last minute. The client, Marguerite, is insulted at being stood up and withdraws all her money from the investment company Jim works at. It is revealed that Jim had been forging account statements to all his friends who invested with him, and with Marguerite's money gone, they are all essentially broke.
At the party that Marti is throwing for them, Claire gets roped into a boring conversation with Karen's husband, while Marti gets John alone in the library. Marti throws herself at John, who feels something for her, but refuses her advances and leaves. Jim Denton arrives at the party, and Marti instantly forgets her rejection as she welcomes back her AWOL husband. While talking to Jim, Karen's husband makes an inappropriate comment about Karen's sexuality, causing her to run off and leave Hunting Hills.
Jim's fraud is found out by his boss and his friends and he runs off, assuming the identity of an old fraternity brother. He divorces Marti over the phone, causing her to have a total breakdown. Marti calls John over to her house to comfort her, which he does. Claire get home in a celebratory mood after dropping off the article that she wrote, which had no relevance to the subject Eric wanted (pissing off Eric as he planned to put it on the front page). She calls Boots to ask for a cooking tip, who lets it drop that John is over at Marti's house and that they're having an affair. Devastated, Claire falls asleep on the couch.
When she wakes up, John is standing over her holding the newspaper. He angrily asks her why her name is on an article about Karen Goss, and Claire accuses him of cheating. They fight and John storms out. Claire later bumps into Marti, who tells her that although she wanted to seduce John that night, he completely rejected her and all he did was talk about how great Claire was. Claire and Marti soon bond over her loss (husband and money), and they set off to find Jim.
Seeing how hurt Claire is from the fight she had with John, Marti calls Eric and offers him an exclusive on her husband's fraud if he apologises to Claire and John for deliberately placing Claire's name on an article she didn't have anything to do with. While Eric apologises, Claire steps outside, only to be taken hostage by Jim, who's desperate to get the cops off his back. They wrestle, Jim's gun goes off, but luckily Claire is unharmed. All ends well as John and Claire make up, Jim gets sent to jail, and Marti gets an early inheritance from her dad.
Sarah Strohmeyer
Sarah Strohmeyer is an award-winning American author of crime novels and of books about human relations between men and women. Her works include The Cinderella Pact, The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives, The Sleeping Beauty Proposal, and the Bubbles Yablonsky series...
. It was published in 2005 by Penguin Group.
Plot summary
In the luxurious neighbourhood of Hunting Hills, Ohio, Marti Dench realises her husband is never around and suspects her husband is having an affair. At the same time, John Harding comes back from Prague with a new wife that is far from the normal size two socialites of Hunting Hill. The instant Marti hears John, a long time friend, is newly married, she experiences jealousy and believes that John is the real love of her life. She then sets out to seduce John and begin an affair with him.John's new (and second) wife, Clare Stark, has difficulty settling into life at Hunting Hills. Once a hot-shot journalist, Claire is now forced to be a stay-at-home wife as her new husband has a bad history with the only newspaper in town, and Claire has a romantic history with the chief editor of that paper. The other wives aren't so welcoming, and John's mother disapproves of Claire. Claire befriends Marti, who goes out of her way to invite Claire to their exclusive book club and throws a party in Claire and John's honour, but only as a ploy to get John into bed. Claire, none the wiser, continues to try and make friends with the other Hunting Hills wives.
At Claire's first book club meeting, one of the wives, Karen Goss, calls for help from the police station. As everyone except Claire has been drinking, Claire drives down with Marti and Boots, John's ex-wife, to help her out. At the police station, confesses that she is confused about her sexuality, a result of her husband forcing her to commit sexual acts with other women. In an intimate rendezvous with her husband's secretary in Edgewater Park, Karen became the victim of a hate crime against homosexuals and was taken down to the police station to give a statement. She begs Claire to pull strings with Eric Schmaltz, the editor of the Cleveland Citizen newspaper, so that her name does not appear in the papers as she does not want to humiliate her family.
Claire agrees to help Karen, but in a meeting with Eric, she is blackmailed into writing up an interview with a Hunting Hill wife who was convicted of manslaughter. Knowing how much her husband hatese the idea of writing for the Cleveland Citizen, Claire devises a plan to get back at Eric for the blackmailing.
Meanwhile, Jim Denton, Marti's husband, is caught in a compromising situation with Lisa, Marti's best friend, whom Jim is having an affair with. Having taken 4 viagra pills, Jim's erection refuses to die down and he misses his meeting with an important client at the last minute. The client, Marguerite, is insulted at being stood up and withdraws all her money from the investment company Jim works at. It is revealed that Jim had been forging account statements to all his friends who invested with him, and with Marguerite's money gone, they are all essentially broke.
At the party that Marti is throwing for them, Claire gets roped into a boring conversation with Karen's husband, while Marti gets John alone in the library. Marti throws herself at John, who feels something for her, but refuses her advances and leaves. Jim Denton arrives at the party, and Marti instantly forgets her rejection as she welcomes back her AWOL husband. While talking to Jim, Karen's husband makes an inappropriate comment about Karen's sexuality, causing her to run off and leave Hunting Hills.
Jim's fraud is found out by his boss and his friends and he runs off, assuming the identity of an old fraternity brother. He divorces Marti over the phone, causing her to have a total breakdown. Marti calls John over to her house to comfort her, which he does. Claire get home in a celebratory mood after dropping off the article that she wrote, which had no relevance to the subject Eric wanted (pissing off Eric as he planned to put it on the front page). She calls Boots to ask for a cooking tip, who lets it drop that John is over at Marti's house and that they're having an affair. Devastated, Claire falls asleep on the couch.
When she wakes up, John is standing over her holding the newspaper. He angrily asks her why her name is on an article about Karen Goss, and Claire accuses him of cheating. They fight and John storms out. Claire later bumps into Marti, who tells her that although she wanted to seduce John that night, he completely rejected her and all he did was talk about how great Claire was. Claire and Marti soon bond over her loss (husband and money), and they set off to find Jim.
Seeing how hurt Claire is from the fight she had with John, Marti calls Eric and offers him an exclusive on her husband's fraud if he apologises to Claire and John for deliberately placing Claire's name on an article she didn't have anything to do with. While Eric apologises, Claire steps outside, only to be taken hostage by Jim, who's desperate to get the cops off his back. They wrestle, Jim's gun goes off, but luckily Claire is unharmed. All ends well as John and Claire make up, Jim gets sent to jail, and Marti gets an early inheritance from her dad.
Characters
- Claire Stark - A reporter who became the second wife of John Harding
- John Harding - Claire Stark's husband
- Marti Denton - Hunting Hills wife who has her eyes set on John Harding
- Jim Denton - Marti's stockbroker husband who was later convicted of fraud
- Boots - John Harding's ex-wife
- Karen Goss - Hunting Hills wife who is confused about her sexuality
- Bob Goss - Karen's husband who forces her to have sex with other women while he watches
- Lisa Renfew - Marti's best friend, who is sleeping with Jim Denton
- Ty Renfrew - Lisa's husband who loses all his money to Jim
- Eric Schmaltz - Chief editor of the Cleveland Citizen, the only newspaper in town