Book Review: An Inconvenient Wife by Karen E. Olson

The Tudor monarch mystery that I never knew I needed came to life in Karen E. Olson’s An Inconvenient Wife. Taking the classic history of King Henry VIII’s six wives and setting them in modern day, Olson creates a truly clever novel. She explores not only what these women may have been like today, but also a contemporary view on how their fates met them. As the story unfolds, you’ll find that the 21^st century is just as unkind as the 16^th.

Olson begins by introducing us to Kate Parker, the sixth and latest wife of Hank Tudor. Previously working as an assistant to billionaire Tudor, Kate is quickly courted following his divorce to Caitlyn Howard. Kate believes she knows what she has gotten herself into, having worked for Tudor throughout his previous marriage and subsequent divorce. However, she soon finds that she may have signed up for much more than she bargained for. Just as the two are about to begin their married life together, a phone call changes everything.

A body has been found on Tudor’s property in Greenwich, Connecticut. While this alone is cause for concern, it then turns out that the body is missing a head – and this isn’t the first time this has happened.

“It was a woman.” She hesitated for a second. “She was beheaded.”

 

Hank’s fingers danced along hers before turning her hand over, tracing her palm lightly. She shivered.

 

“Was she?” he asked softly.

The honeymoon phase is swiftly over, and Kate is thrust into a world of high security and police interrogations. In hopes of keeping the paparazzi at bay, Kate is asked to remain at the bed and breakfast run by Tudor’s fourth wife, Anna. As Kate and Anna grow closer throughout this grim experience, Olson unveils more about the lives of each previous wife and the tragedy that befell them.

“She wasn’t sure what she’d gotten herself into by marrying Hank Tudor. A first wife who still made his shifts by hand while she imprisoned herself in a mansion, growing more bitter and older every day; a second who’d held his heart and his passion and then abandoned him; a third who’d died too soon; a fourth who was content running a small business and taking care of his children; and a fifth who was, well, how to describe Caitlyn? Impetuous, moody, sexy, young – an actress but also a drug addict and a drunk. Hank’s midlife crisis.”

The way Olson mirrors the wives of Henry VIII is skilled, with each woman’s life taking shape in an uncanny parallel to the English monarchy. However, knowing the fate of Catherine Howard in 1542 does not bode well for the unidentified body in Greenwich. With the growing concern that the body found may be Caitlyn, Tudor’s fifth wife, Kate sets out to investigate on her own. This proves more challenging than expected, as she is continually faced with more questions than answers, and soon begins to suspect her own husband.

“His hands curled into fists and his jaw tensed as he got up slowly. Kate struggled not to look away from his glare.”

 

“You’re playing with fire, Kate. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave this alone.”

Thrown into a world of money, secrets and lies, Kate finds herself not only fighting to uncover the truth, but to save her own life as well. As a fan of the Tudor era, this book had me hooked from the start. Yet regardless of the historical parallels, I also found myself engrossed by the unique and gripping narrative. An Inconvenient Wife beautifully weaves together the past and present, resulting in a thrilling must-read.