The Wife Upstairs

Published in 2021, Rachel Hawkins’s thriller The Wife Upstairs adapts Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre for the 21st century. Best known for Hex Hall, her trilogy of young adult paranormal romance novels, Hawkins tells the story of Jane Bell: a young woman with a traumatic, mysterious past who starts over in the affluent community of Thornfield Estates. Hawkins alternates the narrative perspective throughout the novel to build suspense and highlight the shared experiences of outsiders Jane, Eddie, and Bea. Through her relationships with Eddie and Bea Rochester, Jane confronts her past and learns the consequences of blind ambition.

Plot Summary

Six months after the disappearance of Birmingham, Alabama residents Bea Rochester and Blanche Ingraham, Jane Bell meets Eddie Rochester as she walks dogs in Thornfield Estates—the missing women’s wealthy neighborhood. Jane is a 23-year-old woman from Phoenix who has escaped a traumatic past in search of a fresh start. Jane and Eddie feel an instant connection. Jane soon learns about the mysterious circumstances of Bea and Blanche’s disappearance: The women never returned from a boat ride at the Rochesters’ lake house and are presumed dead.