The Second Wife is a novel written by the Canadian author Brenda Chapman and first published in 2011. Chapman is well-known for works belonging to the mystery and detective genre and published several works in this context. The novel is about the mystery of a murder and about the mixed feelings of love, curiosity and confusion. However, one interesting aspect in the novel is the female protagonist of the story, Gwen Lake. Mainly, it is interesting to follow how the protagonist develops throughout the story as it is uncommon to have a female protagonist in this genre, mystery and detective. That is to say, Gwen Lake, the protagonist, evolves from being a secretary and administrative officer at the police department to becoming a junior detective after conducting a sophisticated investigation carried by her own and beyond normal police work done by male colleagues. The Second Wife reflects upon an interesting aspect in this genre which is creating a female protagonist and developing the character throughout the novel to finally overcome the antagonist and achieve what she aimed to. In this context, an interesting dimension of the protagonist character is how the novel portrays the female protagonist and how she is developed throughout the story.
The Second Wife revolves around the female protagonist, Gwen Lake, who is a 45 years old police officer doing secretariat and administrative work at the police station. The novel starts with Gwen and Marjory Jason, Brian’s new wife meeting at a restaurant and Marjory is complaining about Brian, Gwen’s ex-husband, and accusing him of being violent. However, Gwen did not believe as she knew Brian for 22 years during their marriage. After a while, a murder report indicated that Marjory was killed and Brian was charged with a first-degree murder. This was a heart-breaking fact for Gwen who went through much confusion and a lot of thoughts considering if she has been living with a murderer for 22 years or not. Yet, Gwen couldn’t believe that Brian was a murderer. Therefore, Gwen decided to investigate the matter to check whether Brian really has become murderer or not and to satisfy her curiosity by answering the question whether she knew Brian enough or in case he is a murderer.
Gwen Lake, being an administrative officer at the police station, has to carry out the investigation using her job as a police officer. However, her colleague Cal is on the case as a lead investigator and Gwen doesn’t want him to know about her carrying out an investigation on her own. Finally, Gwen succeeds in gathering information and putting clues together to prove that Brian is innocent and Marjory together with her son killed her friend, Alice. Marjory changed medical reports at the dentist’s with Marjory’s dental records. The result of Gwen’s investigation was presented before Cal who seemed to be convinced and decided to investigate the case further. Fortunately, the real murderers, Marjory and her son Jason, were exposed and put into jail. Cal receives a promotion for his work on the case and Gwen becomes a junior detective after Cal gives her the credit for the investigation.
The events in the novel revolve around the female protagonist, Gwen Lake, in the town of Duluth. Mostly, everything is happening in different places but yet still in the same town. However, the time aspect is never mentioned during the novel.
The main character of the novel is Gwen Lake, a 45 years old police officer, divorced from Brian who is accused with a first-degree murder of Marjory. The main character is portrayed as a bored middle-age and divorced woman working with boring tasks at the police station. The author illustrates this matter in the very beginning of the book.
“My name is Gwen Lake. I am forty-five-years-old divorced mother of none. I work for Duluth police force doing bookkeeping and secretariat work when asked.” (p.9)
This citation illustrates the protagonist’s life situation that could barely get more boring and less attractive. That is, a mid-age woman who is divorced and mainly has nothing interesting about her job or about her life as she has no children after a marriage that lasted a quite long period.
The protagonist in The Second Wife gets stronger and more self-confident as per the events develop around her and after she decides to investigate the case on her own using her job as a police officer. In the middle of the story, the protagonist gets to her strongest point as she dares to stay late at night after all officers went home to get papers from Cal’s office. She becomes more analytical as well and thinks consequently about the matter.
“I waited until Cal and other detectives left for the night. I stayed at my desk an extra fifteen minutes to make sure Cal wasn’t coming back for something he’d forgotten. … I circled the room, I flipped through files stacked on the window ledge…” (p. 30).
Finally, the protagonist achieves what she aimed for which is proving that Brian is innocent. In addition to her achievement, she gets a promotion to start working in a more interesting position at the police station.
The protagonist develops from being a bored mid-aged divorced woman with no children to gain more self-confidence and achieve a new position in her professional life with more interesting tasks. Furthermore, being a female protagonist never made the matter easier for her as none of the men colleagues, mainly Cal, believed in her ability solving the mystery of the murder. She dared to use her job title as a police officer to get what she aimed for but this was neither easy nor without any dangerous consequences.
I would highly recommend reading this interesting mystery book with a female protagonist overcoming an antagonist that is usually handled by men in this genre. It gives a new perspective about the matter of the protagonist beyond what is traditional for this genre.