Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives ~ edited by Sarah Weinman

Title: Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives: Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense 

Author: (various) edited by Sarah Weinman

Publication Year:  2013 
Publisher:  Penguin
Edition: eGalley
Source: NetGalley
Date Completed: Sept - 2013
Rating: 4.5/5

Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives, is a wonderful anthology of crime fiction (domestic crime fiction) from days gone by, all written by females. Edited by Sarah Weinman, this book contains some (14) chilling stories from days gone by.  Many of the authors were ones I was familiar with and a few I've enjoyed in the past, like Patricia Highsmith and Shirley Jackson. The authors in this compilation published these stories in the 1940s - 1970s, and before each story is a brief bio of the author and their work. Most paint an eerie picture of the sinister side of women. Some of the stories made me wonder whether the writers themselves might have experienced this darker side of domesticity themselves.  

Just a few of my favorites from the collection:

• The Heroine; Patricia Highsmith  (about a nanny who appears to be very sweet, but we all know appearances can sometimes be deceiving)
• Sugar and Spice; Vera Caspary  (2 women are in love with the same man which can only spell disaster)
• The Splintered Monday; Charlotte Armstrong  (what really happened to my sister is the question an elderly woman has when visiting her sister's family following the death).

I actually enjoyed at least 10/14 stories in this book, even though I have never been a big short story fan.  However, for me, crime fiction is a special treat, and trust me, this collection is worth your time. The stories both shocked and fascinated me. Try a few of the stories and I bet you'll end up reading more than you thought you would.  

I loved that must every story takes place in and around the home and so many in the kitchen or bedroom (our favorite rooms right?).  Until finishing this collection, I never thought of domestic life as entertaining reading.  Trust me, revenge and an unstable frame of mind  at any age can prove to be deadly. 

One thing I noticed was that the choice of words and phrases in some of the stories definitely made the stories feel dated, but to me that was also part of the old-fashioned charm of stories from the 40s and 50s. The best feature about most of these stories was that they were about real life situations handled with a sinister twist. The 40s, 50s and 60s, were times when many an unhappy woman, just couldn't walk out of a relationship, so some of these women had backup plans. TRY IT!

Sarah Weinman is the news editor for Publishers Marketplace and writes the monthly “Crimewave” mystery and suspense column for the National Post. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the New York Observer, Slate, and the New Yorker online, among other publications.