The idea for THE WIFE’S HOUSE came to me in a dream. I was on a walk near my house, wandering by the coast—somewhere in the world, my dream didn’t tell me where—and triplets approached me, telling me that I was living in their home. Yet they were friendly. Were they my children? Who were these teenagers? Needless to say, being a writer, I had to explore this!
There were so many influences for my book. Of course, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, features the house of all time, Manderley, a character in its own right. I wanted to evoke this feeling with Cliffside; the power a house can have over its owners, the sacrifices we make to hold onto that house until it can eclipse everything else. What is a home? Is it the house itself? Or is it the feeling of security and love and family?
Climate change is an important element of my novel. As I was writing The Wife’s House, there was a mudslide in Santa Barbara, and Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge in Big Sur had collapsed. It was extraordinary. I had already set my book there, but this seemed like an omen. No spoilers, but all this contributed to the themes in my novel, and the humdinger ending may seem farfetched but isn’t. This stuff actually happened! These sorts of life-threatening events are occurring every day all over the world. “I stared out the window at the obscured view. Cliffside seemed to be weeping. Torrents of rain smashed against the glass, gushing down through her gutters and out to sea.”
As for my protagonist with no name (Ha! Rebecca again), I wanted to give that feeling of loss of identity and confusion. My main character is alone, a new widow after the death of her husband, Juan, a charismatic attorney who dies in a car crash along treacherous Highway One. It’s easier to write a feisty hero or heroine who makes all the right choices than it is explore the fragilities and vulnerabilities of human nature. The weaknesses. The paranoia. Harold Pinter’s 1960’s screenplay, The Servant, is a work of art that influenced me enormously. It shows how a suave and wealthy man (the James Fox character) crumbles bit by bit when his home (and his mind) are overtaken by his manservant (played brilliantly by Dirk Bogarde). You observe his gradual demise like an accident happening in slow-motion, and even though he sees it unfolding himself before his very own eyes, he is powerless to stop it. When people hold psychological power over you—especially if drink or drugs play a role—confidence collapses. In marriages, at work, in friendships. We do trust people, we do believe the best, we do want to give others the benefit of the doubt. We do hand over our power. And over and over again we are disappointed. But we still repeat the same mistakes, we are only human. All this I wanted to convey.
The Wife’s House is a modern gothic tale of a Frank Lloyd-Wright type of house perched at the edge of a cliff, set amidst the rolling Big Sur mist, the redwoods, the pines, and the slapping surf of the Pacific Ocean. Cliffside is a witness to the lies, secrets, and crimes that unfold in an atmosphere of creepy paranoia. “The house. She watched me now with her big, square, glass eyes, wondering what I’d do next as I scampered towards the woods.”
Arianne Richmonde is the USA TODAY bestselling author of the psychological thriller, The Wife’s House (released by Bookouture Aug 24, 2020). Her second book with Bookouture will release January 2021.
Her Pearl series has sold more than half a million copies worldwide. Her stories are always character-driven and full of unexpected twists and turns.
