The Women in White

It wasn’t intentional, but I ended up reading Sarah Pekkanen’s newest book The Women in White right after Faith Gardner’s The Spin, both of which are psychological thriller/historical fiction mash-ups featuring 60’s era housewives, and I’ve come to a conclusion:

The expectations on these women to be wife, mother, lover, hostess, live-in cook/maid and silent partner, all while impeccably dressed, made up and smiling adoringly at their husbands must’ve been soul-crushingly draining. Thank goodness I didn’t become a wife until a few decades later!

Betty Sadler is a wheelchair bound 81-year-old widow who advertises for help in her home. Riley Bell is a hospital health aide and recent divorcee whose ex wiped out her finances with his gambling addiction. Despite many more highly qualified candidates, Betty hires her. It doesn’t take long before Riley notices that Betty’s house seems stuck in an earlier time, the neighbors have never spoken with her and Betty is unfamiliar with modern conveniences like Wi-Fi. What is this woman’s story?

When conversation one day turns to friendships and Betty mentions three close friends from her past that she’s lost touch with: Ivy, Kathleen and Helen, Riley offers to try to track them down. Betty is grateful, but it also opens the door to a painful and mysterious past that she’d just as soon like to forget.

As chapters alternate between 1964 and the present day, the story of these four friends is laid out and we find out that while these women were brought together by the things they had in common, as is typical, those shared qualities were anything BUT typical! It turns out that each of them show exceptional abilities that many of us would simply refer to as ESP (extra-sensory perception), though it manifested differently for each of them. 

Unfortunately, Betty, Ivy, Kathleen and Helen’s abilities also put them on the radar of Marquis University’s unscrupulous professor Dr. Silas Trimble, whose ambition to become famous in the world of parapsychology puts these four women increasingly in harm’s way, as they become his first test subjects to understand their special abilities. To see the cost to these women and know it’s a fictionalized look at real things done in the name of science to real people is heartbreaking!

As Riley digs deeper into the past to help Betty, she finds that there are some who don’t want those events brought to light. As horrible truths are revealed, Riley finds out that the past isn’t as far away as she thinks. Will she be able to keep Betty safe … or herself?

I liked this! Pekannen has told a story that’s equal parts fascinating, horrifying and suspenseful. I loved the quotes and anecdotes from real-life parapsychological studies and experiences that led every chapter of this otherwise fictional tale, and how the story gives insights into actual experiments done on human subjects in the study of these extra-sensory abilities.  It’s some messed up stuff and when you factor in women’s lack of agency at that time to say ‘no’ to being used this way, it’s very troubling! 

This was an immersion read with my Kindle and the audio narrated by the always wonderful Saskia Maarleveld, who once again brought this to life. I highly recommend both formats! If you enjoy a combination of psychological suspense, mystery and historical fiction showing a darker side of the past, you may enjoy this!

★★★★ 

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley and author Sarah Pekkanen for the digital ARC and MacMillan audio for the ALC to honestly review. This will be published on August 4, 2026.