Family. Community. Tradition.
Annihilation.
Everyone remembers the Heart of Solomon murders: three young married couples slaughtered around the dinner table, their bodies desecrated, in the UK’s first and only purpose-built Tradwife community.
And no suspect ever charged.
Writer Gina Lewis wants to know. Her plan: talk to the people who knew the three dead couples best, and try to understand what brought them to the Heart of Solomon. Puzzle out why they died – and how the “traditional marriage” Arcadia they were promised turned so dangerous, so quickly.
And she’ll keep going until she finds the truth. No matter what it costs her.
Dark bleatings, trad wives and people who work outside the home! I’m on a bit of a binge reading these types of books at the moment and I’m having a great time. I read Saratoga Schaeffer’s Trad Wife first (loved it), and then immediately moved onto this, which is a completely different handling of this new subgenre entirely.
Saratoga’s book deals with an influencer desperate for a baby, basically so she can exploit it for likes on social media and present herself as the perfect trad wife. This novel by TC Parker takes an entirely different approach and works more as a ‘whodunnit’ mystery, and is told in a completely different style. A panicked woman reaches out to someone because her wife has gone missing, and her wife at this time was investigating multiple simultaneous murders in a UK-based trad wife housing community. The worried wife forwards a book by her missing wife as she documented her findings, hoping the third party might be able to figure out what’s going on.
Now, I have to say, there was something about this book that stopped it from being a five star read, but it’s kind of my fault. I never read the back cover synopsis of a book. I either buy based on author’s name, the book cover, based on a conversation with an author at a convention, or if I see a lot of online buzz about a book that falls into one of my preferred subgenres. I basically go in as blind as possible to the plot though, and this is where my disappointment comes in (though I say ‘disappointment’ very mildly and for lack of a better word.
I just assumed that this book would fall squarely into the horror genre, a mistake I would not have made if – what’s that, ladies and gentleman? – I had read the synopsis, which clearly paints this novel as a horror mystery grounded in the real world. Had I realised I was in a whodunnit scenario, I would have had a blast trying to figure out who the culprit was. But, foolish little me, I was reading with the certainty that this story was something else and heading into a completely different direction. That’s on me. Nevertheless, I gave this novel 4/5 stars and even had I realised the subgenre I was in, that would still have been the case based on personal preference.
I loved the style it was written in, the back and forth in emails, the document, etc. The premise, that of a woman worried for her wife, is the kind of thing that always captures my attention (and elevates my stress levels because what a nightmare!). The third act in particular really amps up the tension, too. It’s a slow and very intriguing burn initially but as we near the final curtain, it gets very suspenseful. I found the ending, the answers, and the resolution to be very satisfying also.
I’d definitely recommend this to people who enjoy horror/mystery/domestic thriller blends, particularly if you enjoy a more unconventional narrative style. I had a great time in this world (which, to be clear, I don’t want to be in, not the way TC Parker has shown it to me!).
If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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