The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
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The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires

Literary fiction

The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford

by Nafissa Thompson-Spires

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Quick Take

How many ways can one man die? This inventive literary novel is a study of mythmaking, marriage, and small-town gossip.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Multiple_Viewpoints

    Multiple viewpoints

  • Illustrated icon, Cerebral

    Cerebral

  • Illustrated icon, Whodunit

    Whodunit

  • Illustrated icon, Under200

    Under 200 pages

Synopsis

Rich Milford is dead. At last.

We find ourselves in 1920s Oklahoma, just far enough out of Tulsa, just long enough after the Race Massacre of 1921. For as long as anyone can remember, the Milfords have led plentiful lives on the backs of the townspeople of Newville. Now, on the ominous brink of the Great Depression and at the height of Prohibition, Richard Milford was an infamous moonshiner and womanizer who, it seems, finally crossed the wrong person at the wrong time. He’s dead and buried with only his women to mourn him, but a question remains: Who killed him, and why?

Top suspects are his four “wives,” Lally, Sophronia, Georgette, and Vivianne. But as their stories burst to light, the very idea of a true story comes apart before our eyes.

Content warning

This book contains scenes depicting graphic violence and a miscarriage.
October 2026 audio
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October 2026 audio
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Mother Daughter Sister Stranger
The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford
Bad Words
American Hagwon
The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman
The Wretched Divine