THE WATCHFUL WIFE

The Watchful Wife is the story of a woman raised within the cradle of an outlying, fundamentalist church whose life unravels with the arrest of her husband on sexual assault charges.

Having escaped the clutches of her stern parents and the austere evangelical church in which she has been raised, Ellen cannot believe her good fortune when she comes to the attention of fellow high school teacher, Gordon. Despite the disapproval of her parents, who decry Gordon as a non-believing sinner, the couple marries. Three years later, when she finds police officers at the door, Ellen's life unravels. Refusing to believe the allegations levelled against her husband, Ellen finds herself abandoned by all but her mother-in-law who alone shares Ellen's unswerving faith in Gordon's innocence. When, despite his protestations, Gordon is imprisoned for the sexual assault of a student, Ellen leaves her job, reverts to her maiden name and moves to a small school where she will not be known. A new student to the school attracts Ellen's attention. She is, Ellen discovers, her husband's accuser, a girl Ellen knows only by name and through the contents of her police statement. Determined to exonerate her husband, Ellen makes it her mission to gain the girl's trust, no matter what the cost. Suzanne Leal is the author of novels Running With Ivan, The Teacher's Secret, Border Street and The Deceptions, for which she won the Nib People's Choice Prize and was shortlisted for the Davitt Awards and the Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award. A legal member of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, board director of BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival and interviewer and facilitator at literary and corporate events, Suzanne is the online host of Thursday Book Club.