Review of The Wicked Wives

[Jess Bendele]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Wicked Wives" by Gus Pelagatti.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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The Wicked Wives by Gus Pelagatti was the best book I have read this year. What first interested me was that it was based on a true story. The second interesting factor for me was the murder mystery aspect of the book, and the third thing that kept me reading was the eroticism. I don’t typically look for erotic books, but the sexual descriptions in this book added to the enjoyment of reading.

This book is set in the 1930’s, so it does include some racist remarks throughout. Tom, the assistant district attorney, was my favorite character just because he didn’t take anyone's crap and trusted his instincts to solve the case. He is an Italian whose family immigrated to America, so he has dealt with his fair share of racial slurs and bullying. He didn’t let Deputy Bill Evans bully him into anything, which proved to be hard since Tom was going to run for District Attorney and would need the deputy’s backing to get the votes he needed to win. Another reason Tom wouldn’t win the votes for district attorney was that at the time of the first autopsy Tom ordered for Reggie Stoner, he was dating Hope Daniels, who had African American blood in her veins and Deputy Evans made sure that was public knowledge, which caused significant blowback for Tom and Hope and ultimately ended their relationship.

I loved all of the different women and their backgrounds. They are all in this cult of women who killed their husbands with poison to collect insurance money. Some of them decided on their own and needed Giorgio, the Don Juan of Passyunk Avenue, to supply the poison. Others were convinced by Giorgio to kill their husbands for the money and used their lust/love for him to convince them it was the right thing to do and that he would marry them and run away if they went through with it. Then there was the lady in black, whom no one knew until the end. That was the biggest and best twist of all in the book. Giorgio was a ladies' man, a tailor who had his own shop, and a small-time gangster turned poison ring leader and murderer.

One thing I cannot believe is how a couple of the ladies were found innocent of their husband’s murders. In my opinion, all of the evidence was there in black-and-white motive, and all. I gave this book a 4 out of 5 because it was such a fantastic read; it just had some grammatical errors, especially towards the end of the book.

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The Wicked Wives
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