Circle of Wives (LaPlante) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
I finished reading this absorbing novel after 11 last night. That’s the mark of a successful mystery.
Carolyn See - Washington Post


Exhilarating and smart, A Circle of Wives is a wild ride of love, loss, marriage and murder, with a finale that's provocative, thrilling and grand. It all shows that while some deaths are a mystery, so, too, are some loves.
San Francisco Chronicle


Surprising, swift and sure-footed...[LaPlante] has taken an intriguing premise and, having hooked the reader, delivers an equally intriguing book.
Seattle Times


Insightful.... [An] engrossing tale of tangled relationships, unfilled needs, and the endless human talent for self-deception. The question it plants in the reader’s mind is the most chilling of all: How well do I know the person I love?
Washington Independent Review of Books


Marriage is as mysterious as murder in LaPlante’s captivating psychological thriller. . . . a smart, intricate tale about murder and the elusive mysteries of marriage.... In LaPlante’s world knowing who did the deed is never as fascinating as wondering why. (3.5 stars)
People


The pleasures of this novel—as with LaPlante's last, Turn of Mind—lie less in the plot, which is strewn with only a few clues and red herrings, and more in the sharply drawn and carefully shaded characters. (A-)
Entertainment Weekly


Told in the alternating...the novel explores love, loss, control, the influence of past relationships, and passion. The multi-narrator approach may strike some as choppy at first, but LaPlante quickly settles into a captivating rhythm. She paints a sympathetic picture of the enigmatic John while channeling the women’s voices to explore how their separate stories converged on him.
Publishers Weekly


Though a murder mystery serves as the backdrop to LaPlante's tale...[the] investigation of a crime becomes an exploration of the choices these women made and the resulting impact. Fans of character-driven puzzles will find much to like in this psychological novel. —Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI
Library Journal


Plastic surgeon [John] Taylor's passion is reconstructing the faces of damaged children. Taylor was... "competent, straight-talking, yet compassionate," and so there's widespread shock when Taylor's found dead at a local hotel. The confusion's compounded when it's discovered that Taylor was a bigamist.... Love, passion and marriage reflected in a mystery's fun-house mirror.
Kirkus Reviews