It is an interesting peek from the angle of the wife of a famous sociopath.
Maggie Bradford seemed like a born victim. One after another, she was tricked into marrying men who had mental issues and took it out on her physically. But unlike the run of the mill of abused wives, she had talents and did make it to the top of her chosen profession. She became an internationally known song writer and singer.
My peasant grandma had a saying:"the first bowl of rice may contain grain with seed coat, but the second will contain sand". It rightly or wrongly pointed to the chances that a woman would make good in her second marriage.This saying came from China since hundreds of years ago. It may no longer apply to a Post-Mao society, But I notice that within limits, it is generally true. Of course there are exceptions to the rule in these modern days.
Interestingly, in the book we find Maggie did not marry the only good man whom she had a son with. Her second husband was more evil than her first. The first one merely wanted to kill her in a rage. The second one staged his own murder by killing his younger brother. He made sure the wife went through a long and drawn out murder trial. It is a marvel that the defense team could find out the new evidence to declare the first case as a mistrial. This way she escaped a long prison sentence. Later she was acquitted in the second trial. I actually expected the monster, Will to be killed. But James put in a better ending: Will was to face life confinement in a mental facility, it was sweet justice that he was aware of everything but was unable to talk.
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