The Innocent Wife

In British author Lloyd’s labored debut, Samantha, an English schoolteacher, becomes obsessed with the case of Dennis Danson, who has been on death row since 1993 for the gruesome murder of a high school girl in Florida’s Red River County. He was suspected of killing four other girls, but their bodies were never found, and Sam is convinced he’s innocent. Sam starts to correspond with Dennis, and they develop a bond that prompts her to fly to the U.S. to visit him in Altoona Prison. Their initially awkward romance eventually results in their marrying; an unexpected confession leads to Dennis’s release from Altoona. Sam, naive and unconfident, and Dennis, secretive and withdrawn, move into the remote Danson family home in Red River, where they must face the hostility of the locals. Dennis’s reconnecting with a sinister childhood friend, Lindsay Durst, complicates the couple’s uncomfortable life together. Dennis’s backstory—growing up poor with an abusive drunk of a father and a chronically depressed mother—follows familiar lines. The contrived and unexpected climax disappoints. Fans of serial killer fiction will find nothing new. (Mar.)