The Wife Upstairs
"A delicious twist on a Gothic classic, Rachel Hawkins' The Wife Upstairs pairs Southern charm with atmospheric domestic suspense, perfect for fans of B.A. Paris and Megan Miranda. Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates--a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name. But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester. Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates' most mysterious resident. His wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend, their bodies lost to the deep. Jane can't help but see an opportunity in Eddie--not only is he rich, brooding, and handsome, he could also offer her the kind of protection she's always yearned for. Yet as Jane and Eddie fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, an ambitious beauty with a rags-to-riches origin story, who launched a wildly successful southern lifestyle brand. How can she, plain Jane, ever measure up? And can
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about The Wife Upstairs
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Jane is a young dog walker working the upscale Thornfield Estates neighborhood outside Birmingham, Alabama, lifting small things from her clients on the side.
Yes. Rachel Hawkins's The Wife Upstairs (2021) is a contemporary retelling of Jane Eyre, transposing the gothic premise to an Alabama gated community. The mad-wife-in-the-attic figure becomes a literal upstairs prisoner.
No. The Wife Upstairs is a standalone, but Rachel Hawkins has written several other thrillers in similar contemporary-gothic territory, including Reckless Girls, The Villa, and The Heiress.
The Wife Upstairs was written by Rachel Hawkins, published in 2021 by St. Martin's Press.
The Wife Upstairs is 320 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Wife Upstairs takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
The Wife Upstairs is a standalone novel by Rachel Hawkins, not part of a series.
The Wife Upstairs is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.