A very slow burn, nothing of any interest occurs in the first 3/5ths of the book and even after this point it's not that greatly interesting. The character of Robbie seems interesting as he seems to have two personalities that get switched on and off seemingly randomly, but this isn't explored in any great depth.

Mostly the first part of the book supplies the main character with enough information to get through the second part of the book, but it just seems too contrived. ( )

Robbie's Wife by Russell Hill is a fascinating, well-crafted book that I highly recommend. Why do we need another remake of the tried and true themes of Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity? Well, for one thing, it simply isn't accurate to call this a remake even though the themes of jealousy and murder are there.

This story is about a washed-up sixty-year-old Hollywood screenwriter who, as Fitzgerald once said, just woke up one day and ran out of ideas. There was nothing left for Jack Stone to write about. Not that he had been all that successful to begin with, but he simply had nothing left in the tank. He seized upon the idea of writing in a different climate, a different atmosphere. Perhaps if he traveled halfway around the world, he could find the peace of mind that would allow him to burst forward with new ideas. So Jack Stone finds a cottage in the English countryside and, with about six months worth of cash in the bank, flies to England and plans to spend his days writing in the quiet solitude of the fields and the crashing waves. It turns out that the delightful little country cottage that he rented was no more than a barely functional shed with an attached outhouse and, within a few days, he breaks his contract with the farmer and sets out without a destination in mind.

Jack could have headed back to Los Angeles, but he didn't. He finds himself, instead, drinking with the guys in a small-town pub and, while they head back to work, he is barely functioning. He inquires and finds that a sheep farmer up the road often puts up lodgers. And, he head there and meets Maggie and Robbie. Maggie used to be a dancer and had dreams of dancing in the Royal Ballet Company before she met Robbie, a Cambridge-educated man who married her and returned to his father's sheep farm to help out when his father took a turn for the worse and never left. With his parents gone, Robbie tends to the sheep and Maggie gracefully in her bare feet dances around the kitchen. Jack Stone, as Maggie always referred to him so as not to confuse him with their dog ("Jack"), can't take his eyes off Maggie as she waltzes around the kitchen making shepherd's pie and a cuppa of tea. He is transfixed by this forty-year-old married woman and falls in love with her.

One day leads to the next and Jack can't seem to leave the sheep farm. Maggie tells him that she has seen how he looks at her and they take long walks in the countryside while Robbie is off looking to buy a calf or getting supplies. Jack and Maggie's illicit affair is told in a tender manner and it is clear in this story that they are not just lustful and indecent even when Maggie tells Jack one morning when they are alone that she considered hopping in his bed and jumping his bones.

Jack seems to find excuse after excuse to stay on as a boarder at the sheep farm and grows close to the family until it reaches a point where Maggie appears to be begging him to leave. It feels like Postman by James Cain at some points here, particularly where Jack and Maggie worry about the future and Maggie says she couldn't just leave her husband and her son, although she feels trapped on the farm as if all her dreams were dashed and she dreads becoming like Robbie's mother and the hens she sees gathered in the village, gossiping. Maggie begs Jack to leave and he seems willing to, but his resolve always seems to fall apart when he looks at her.

Even when Jack finally leaves the farm, he remains under Maggie's spell. The magic dust she sprinkled on him won't let him go. He only goes to the next town and begs her to come have coffee with him. She reluctantly joins him and they seem trapped in this hopeless love affair. She tells him to go back to Los Angeles and never turn back.

Jack can't leave her and, at some points, he almost becomes a stalker in quite the manner of the Damnation of Adam Blessing. His obsession with Maggie is clearly understandable from his point of view, but looks kind of nutty from the outside.

The themes pursued in this book are not new, they are indeed age-old noir themes. Yet, Hill is such a powerful writer that, even in the quiet timeless countryside, the reader feels the power of the spell that Jack is under and why he can't leave Maggie behind even when that is just what makes the most sense. The tenderness of their love affair is something rarely found in noir fiction. As Maggie once notes, Jack is so taken by her, he would do anything for her, even swim in the icy river below.
All in all, I found this to be a worthwhile addition to the Hard Case Crime series and I recommend it. Indeed, I knew this was going to be a good one from the very first page. ( )

Robbie's Wife feels like a bit of a clunker among the entertaining Hard Case Crime series. The first two-thirds of the novel are crime-free and lack any sort of impetus. The rest of the action in the final third of the book, including the twist ending, is so inevitable as to be tiring and boring. The decision to go with the writer-as-protagonist is fraught with issues, most importantly creating a Mary Sue. I didn't appreciate the lazy use of gypsy stereotypes in one sub-plot. I think it's safe to say that you're not missing anything if you give this one a pass. ( )