This book was given to me some time ago by a friend and had been sitting on my shelf for quite a while. I finally pulled it out and started reading it…I read the whole thing in about a 15-hour span (not including sleeping for the night!). Mrs. Kimble totally engrossed me…the tale of 3 (sequential) wives of the same man…a man charming to all those he meets, yet a chameleon who seems utterly empty. Each woman he marries seems vulnerable for one reason or another (one is naive, one is recovering from a serious illness, another extremely self-conscious). Each woman struggles for explaining her husband’s behavior, even making up excuses for his behavior to others. But Ken made no apologies for his actions.

This book was extremely well-written, and got even more engaging the longer I read it. Ken’s character seems utterly believable–most women I know have run across someone like him. Why did he do what he did? Who knows. But the book is less about the consistent character–Ken–and more about how each of these women entered into a relationship with him, realized it wasn’t as they anticipated, and resigned themself to that life anyway. I found myself wondering what I would have done if I was each Mrs. Kimble.

Highly recommended! One of my favorite novels I’ve read in 2009.