Man and Wife [Hardcover]

Andrew Klavan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 26, 2001

Cal Bradleys marriage to Marie is the stuff of romance. Then one night, a 19-year-old boy named Peter Blue goes on a rampage. Friendless and suicidal, Blue is sent to Bradley for treatment. For the patient, its a last chance at redemption. For the doctor, its the beginning of a journey into a world of fear, deception, and murder. Because somehow, Blues extraordinary inner life is linked to Cals reality. And in the mystery of the teenagers mind lies the key to a more terrible mystery: Marie Bradleys hidden past.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A wife who's too good to be true usually isn't, and the cliché holds true in Andrew Klavan's engrossing little thriller. Psychiatrist Cal Bradley is married to Marie, a devout, adoring, sensuous helpmate, and he's happier than he ever thought he'd be. In fact, he's surprisingly content to ignore the signs that something in her past is still troubling her deeply, until he sees his wife in the arms of a stranger. Then young Peter Blue, accused of battering his girlfriend and setting a church on fire, comes under Cal's care. When Peter discloses his relationship with the stranger Cal saw in the woods with his wife, Marie's past suddenly explodes into the present, threatening to turn Cal's world upside down. There's not a lot of subtlety here. The conclusion is practically handed to the reader on the first page, with its heavy foreshadowing. But the novel works anyway because of Klavan's deft characterization of Peter, a complex, spiritual adolescent who forces Cal to confront his own conscience and his conflict between love and duty. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

The two Edgars Klavan owns testify to his excellence at thrillers. True Crime; Don't Say a Word; most recently, Hunting Down Amanda he has yet to write a disappointing novel. His newest, too, will please his fans, but it's not his strongest. Psychiatrist Cal Bradley has a perfect life: a great job as head of a psychiatric institute in the New England town his eminent family has called home for generations; two nice kids; and, most important, a wonderful marriage to sweet Marie. Then Peter Blue shows up. Peter, 19, from a poor family, has been arrested for setting fire to a church and for pulling a gun on a cop. A word from Cal's priest, who believes that Peter exhibits an eerie spiritual aura, convinces Cal to evaluate the boy. Cal learns that Peter is indeed intimately connected to God, but also that he harbors hidden, perhaps homicidal, anger, directed partly toward a malevolent stranger in town who one day Cal sees talking to Marie in the woods. But Marie denies the encounter and continues to lie to Cal even as he uncovers incriminating secrets about her past, and even as the stranger's corpse surfaces in a nearby lake. Who killed him? The plotting of this novel is less clever, and the suspense less intense, than in previous Klavans. Even so, the author makes expert use of first-person narration to bond the reader to Cal's suspicions, and then to his complicity in sin; strong supporting characters vivify the smalltown setting. And the book's spiritual slant is unusual, and welcome, in a thriller. This is a minor gem from a major talent, a book that every Klavan fan will want but that won't expand the author's already wide readership.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (October 26, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765302152
• ISBN-13: 978-0765302151
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,743,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Andrew Klavan has been nominated for the Mystery Writer of America's Edgar award five times and won twice. He is the author of several bestselling novels, including Don't Say A Word, filmed starring Michael Douglas, True Crime, filmed by Clint Eastwood, and Empire of Lies. He is currently writing a series of thrillers for young adults called The Homelanders. The first two novels in the series are The Last Thing I Remember and The Long Way Home. Klavan is a contributing editor to City Journal and his essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, among other places. His satiric video commentaries can be seen on PJTV.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I have read in recent years, March 20, 2005

By 

_tiresias_ (texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man and Wife (Paperback)

This is my first Klavan novel, and it was engrossing. Its greatest strength is the unique and powerful love story, in my opinion. Klavan describes what I think true love is about, the almost miraculous nature of it, unexpected, unforced, irrestible, rendering its captives completely devoted to each other, and, thus, vulnerable. Not enough of that kind of love around, it seems, but nice to see that someone can portray it beautifully. The suspense was also good, but this one clearly revolves around love, from the outstanding and unforgettable first line forward.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars seamlessly written, November 7, 2001

By 

Karen Sampson Hudson "Karen Sampson Hudson" (Reno, NV United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Man and Wife (Hardcover)

Andrew Klavan has presented us with a seamlessly written thriller which will draw you in immediately and keep your attention throughout.

Psychiatrist Cal Bradley seems to have found the perfect wife in Marie, his spouse of fifteen years. Then a series of upsetting events causes him to doubt that he truly knows the woman who seems so devoted to him. He's confronted with ethical problems in his profession as his domestic world begins to come apart. Peter Blue, a l9 year old patient, is a compelling presence---troubled and suicidal, yet also possessed of a healing power which revitalizes other troubled young people around him. Peter's secrets are inexplicably interwoven with Marie's mysterious past.

Klavan's book, in the best thriller tradition, will enchant you.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars TILL DEATH DO US PART, August 18, 2002

By 

Michael Butts (Berkeley Springs, WV USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Man and Wife (Hardcover)

With the opening of this psychological "thriller" by Andrew Klavan, you can pretty much figure out what's going to happen. Klavan is very reminiscent of Thomas H. Cook in this tale, but Cook has mastered the art much better. Cook doesn't give away his ending so early. There's a lot of merit in this book; Klavan's narrative skills are sharp, and there is much empathy for the character of Peter Blue. However, I found little empathy for Cal Bradley or his wife. Bradley seems immune to his surroundings and although he can help other people, he can't seem to help himself. To be married to Marie for so long and not realize what an emotional void she had, doesn't add much in the lines of credibility. By the time the book comes to its all too inevitable conclusion, I couldn't like Bradley or his wife very much. Peter Blue's fate is inevitable, but their lack of moral terpitude is unforgivable. RECOMMENDED ONLY FOR KLAVAN'S FANS.