Fans of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling Gone Girl will be thrilled to discover the brilliant novel The Silent Wife about a toxic marriage on a path to disaster. In this case, the path leads to murder.

Jodi and Todd have been together for several decades, living as common-law husband and wife. He is a successful real estate developer; she is a part-time therapist. Jodi has the convenient ability to hide her feelings from herself, or, more accurately, the inability to face her darkest fears. She likes everything wrapped up in neat little packages; her household is perfect and her routine never varies from day to day.

While the two love each other, Todd has a problem with fidelity. While he doesn’t flaunt it, Jodi is well aware of Todd’s cheating. Even when Todd tells Jodi that he is leaving her for his friend’s young daughter, Jodi doesn’t process the information, believing that Todd will come back home to her. When it is apparent he has left her for good, something comes unglued inside Jodi, albeit slowly.

The drama escalates, as Todd continues the “leaving” process, and Jodi starts to comprehend what is really happening. Each partner has a turn to speak in the novel; much is learned from the transcripts of Jodi’s session with a psychotherapist regarding an event in her past that causes her to be the “silent” type.

Neither character is particularly likable, though Jodi’s character is more fully developed than Todd’s. Psychologically, Jodi is very damaged, and that is the part of her character that comes through. Todd doesn’t have as much depth—he is simply a philanderer who thinks he can get away with having his cake and eating it too. Regardless, the atmosphere of dysfunction and the intelligent writing will likely launch this novel into book club circles.

Sadly, the author’s pen has run out of ink: A.S.A. Harrison passed away in April. Harrison had written several works of nonfiction; The Silent Wife was her first novel. The mystery genre has lost an author of great potential.