Infidelity: New Book Tests Faithfulness of Husband with Fidelity Inspector
Wonder if he’ll cheat? There’s only one surefire way to find out: Call Ashlyn.Ashlyn is the pseudonym of Jennifer Hunter, the self-appointed fidelity inspector” heroine of Jessica Brody’s steamy new novel, “The Fidelity Files.” For a fee, Ashlyn will test the faithfulness of your boyfriend, fiancée or husband at bachelor parties or on business trips and report her findings. Her only ground rule: No sex.
Ashlyn operates strictly on referral. After all, who would have to advertise that kind of service? Brody got the novel idea while working for MGM Studios in Los Angeles.
Wevorce.com: How did the seemingly mundane corporate world lead you to such a provocative concept?
Jessica Brody: I think seemingly mundane” is the key phrase here. In the corporate world that I inhabited, there were a certain number of alcohol-related” events that you were expected to attend where I would often find myself observing the interactions between single and non-single co-workers as their behaviors gradually declined from professional to something else entirely. Some of the disturbing things that I witnessed upset me on a profound level. I secretly wished that someone would tell the conveniently” absent significant others about what their husbands/wives/boyfriends/ girlfriends/fiancés really did while attending these functions, but I certainly wasn’t going to be the one to do it. You know what people tend to do to the messenger.” So instead I created a character whose job and purpose in life was to do just that.
Wevorce.com: Did your research with friends and family about infidelity change your view of marriage and commitment?
Brody: After witnessing the inappropriate behavior that I mentioned above, I started to become pretty cynical about love. In fact, it was probably my cynicism that compelled me to write the book in the first place. Then I was introduced to a few books about the law of attraction. I was immediately intrigued by the philosophy that what you focus on is exactly what you get, and I translated this into how I was feeling about men and relationships. I stopped attending the happy hours and other functions where I witnessed things that made me uncomfortable and I started focusing on surrounding myself with people who had the kind of relationship that I wanted to have someday. People like my parents, my married friends and other family members. It was in interviewing and spending time with these people that I obtained a perspective on the other side of the equation.
Wevorce.com: Have you ever been personally involved in infidelity?
Brody: The short answer is yes. There was a former colleague who had a tendency to flirt heavily with girls at the office, including me. It was only after he took our flirtation to the next level that I found out he was engaged. Sadly, I didn’t divulge the truth to his fiancée. I really struggled with that decision, but in the end I convinced myself that it wasn’t my place, that I shouldn’t interfere. But to this day, I really wish I’d had the guts to tell her the truth. Although who knows if she would have even believed me?
Wevorce.com: Many people have fantasized about testing their partner’s intention to cheat.” Were you tempted to run a little trial run yourself?
Brody: Of course! I think a lot of women who read this novel will feel at least a small temptation to either hire Ashlyn or be her. The latter has always intrigued me, mostly because of my obsession with exposing the truth. But I don’t think I’d have the stomach to knowingly flirt with a married man.
Wevorce.com: Ashlyn admits her work changed her. How do you think being a fidelity inspector would change you?
Brody: Great question! If I were really to do her job, I think the hardest part would be breaking the bad news to the women who hired me. That would probably harden me very quickly. All in all, I think being a fidelity inspector would make me extremely cynical. I probably would have a very hard time trusting men again.
Wevorce.com: Some of our readers would no doubt be interested in hiring someone like Ashlyn. Do you know if any fidelity inspectors” actually exist?
Brody: Most of the real-life fidelity inspectors (sometimes known as honey traps” or love decoys”) simply test to see if someone’s husband or wife will flirt, ask for a phone number or invite the subject out to dinner. Ashlyn obviously takes things a lot farther in the book. And while finding out if your loved one is going to ask out another woman or get a phone number might be valuable, I don’t know whether or not that really proves he is the cheating type. In the book, Ashlyn’s inspections leave much less room for doubt.
The Fidelity Files can be found at Amazon.com or bookstores everywhere.
