When questions begin to arise about Bea's disappearance and assumed death, Jane becomes even more suspicious of the man she believes she is falling in love with. It’s been two weeks since I more or less moved in with Eddie, two weeks of soft linens and sinking into the plush sofa in the living room in the afternoon, watching bad reality shows on the massive television.

Let’s take a close look to the story-line: Jane moves to Birmingham, Alabama, broke, looking for a fresh start, running away from something really dark about her past. We don’t know what is. But as we start to know more about her abused childhood at foster care, her kleptomaniac tendencies and mind games to control the power, we may sense she’s the person who has nothing to lose and the people are truly wrong about her: she isn’t the nice, naive dog walker! It reminds Bea of how Blanche was after the funeral for Bea’s mother — Blanche hadn’t been suspicious exactly, but did seem to think that something was off. Bea then thinks about how free she felt after pushing her mother down the stairs. Later, Blanche had accused Bea of stealing all of Southern Manors’ ideas from her. When Blanche soon tells Eddie about her suspicions about Bea’s mother’s death, Bea saw it as Blanche’s jealousy. A delicious twist on a Gothic classic, The Wife Upstairs pairs Southern charm with atmospheric domestic suspense, perfect for fans of B.A. Paris and Megan Miranda. Eddie can give Jane everything she's always wanted: stability, acceptance, and a picture-perfect life.

Eddie recalls how Bea was only person he knew that was more determined to get what she wanted than himself. (He’d liked Jane’s willingness to manipulate for similar reasons.) Even when had Blanche come on to him, he knew that he was just some prop in a fight that Bea and Blanche had been engaging in since they were young. When he rebuffed Blanche’s advances, Blanche ended up telling Eddie that she suspected Bea killed her own mother. Two weeks after Bea’s mother had embarrassed Bea at the Southern Manor’s launch party, Bea’s mother had been found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs, and Bea had been the only one around. Still, Eddie hadn’t really believed it until the night Bea murdered Blanche. Thoughts: A pretty liberal twist on Jane Eyre, this novel grasped me from go. First - Jane isn’t likeable, but I liked her. Not really sure if I’m supposed to, but the fact she steals from her wealthy cookie-cutter cloyingly cute yet decidedly annoying clients (who don’t even notice) makes me smirk away. I can’t blame a girl from gettin’ her hustle on (I could, but I don’t want to!) Something about a solidly written anti-hero sends my heart soaring. Soon, the news breaks that Tripp has been arrested based off of the results of the autopsy of Blanche’s body, but it doesn’t calm Jane’s fears about Eddie. With Jane acting weird around Eddie, Eddie finally asks her point blank whether she thinks he had something to do with the boating incident. Surprised, Jane simply tells him the truth, that she thought maybe it could be true. Then, she apologizes, and they make up. Part VI: Bea Some recent mystery-thrillers that I would recommend over this one are The Guest List (slow build up, but worth it I think), Home Before Dark (if you like haunted house stories) and The Night Swim (if you like some courtroom drama mixed up in your mysteries). I hear the door close behind me, and wonder what Mrs. Reed will do this morning while I’m off walking her dog. Have another cup of coffee? Chase it with a Xanax? Plan some other charity function?

The Wife Upstairs, by Rachel Hawkins, has so many delicious parallels to the old classic, Jane Eyre, but it has its own twists and turns, too. A book full of unlikeable people, which usually means I have a hard time enjoying the book, but in this case, everyone deserves each other and I kept wanting to see what was going to happen next. I couldn't help feeling I'd been here before but really, it was all new and intriguing, wondering what was real and what was for show, when the other shoe was going to drop, because things couldn't go on as they were. Rachel Hawkins (www.rachel-hawkins.com) was a high school English teacher before becoming a full-time writer. She lives with her family in Alabama, and is currently at work on the third book in the Hex Hall series.

Book Excerpt

Rachel Hawkins has done a splendid job showing us how all the scrupulous people will lie to us and what will happen when people start to build their lives based upon lies. She shows us how it creates a butterfly effect that destroys the life of many people When college approaches, Bea tells Blanche she’s planning on going to the same college, but by now Blanche doesn’t seem excited by the prospect of them going off to college together, saying that they “can’t be ‘the Bs’ forever.” As a result, Blanch ends up at Birmingham-Southern, while Bea attends Randolph-Macon. I completely devoured this book! There were some twists that I could see coming, but even more that took me by surprise. I love the writing style of author Rachel Hawkins. It’s very smooth and easy to get lost in her descriptions, characters lines, and imagery. It’s just a fun book that reveals secrets at a perfect pace. That made it very hard for me to put down.