SECRETS OF A MARINE’S WIFE: A TRUE STORY OF MARRIAGE, OBSESSION AND MURDER
By Shanna Hogan
Although this book was uncomplicated and a quick read, it gave complete and absorbing details of the murder of 19 year old Erin Corwin, the wife of a Marine corporal, outside of Twentynine Palms, California.
Erin and her boyfriend Jon were very young when they fell in love and decided to get married. Although their parents worried about them jumping into the relationship so early, they gave their blessing, and the couple married in Las Vegas. They moved to Twentynine Palms, where Jon was stationed, and lived in base housing there. They grew to know the neighbors that lived close to them, including Chris and Nichole Lee. Before long, as their parents had feared, the young couple began having problems, and Erin eventually began an affair with Chris, a disastrous mistake that would prove fatal.
The author takes us on the journey of Erin’s life as an adopted child in a loving, religious family, her passionate love of animals, and her teenage starry-eyed romance with Jon. The author also gives us information about her family and friends, as well as her neighbor, Chris, and the darkness that seemed to control him at times.
Necessarily graphic in some parts, the book tells of events leading up to the horrible death Erin encountered in an abandoned mine in the deserts of Twentynine Palms, and skillfully details the arrest and eventual conviction of her lover, Chris Lee.
This was a page-turner for me, and I thought it was very well-written. My one problem with the entire story was the title. It sounds like a corny Lifetime movie, and I actually expected the story to be the same. However, the writing was professional and skillful, and while I hesitate to say I enjoyed a true murder story, especially about a girl so young, it definitely kept me interested the whole way through.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Reviewed May 2019
House of Black and Blue 