The Other Woman

Beltway politics and romantic revenge don't quite gel in this paint-by-numbers potboiler by bestseller Diamond, the nom de plume of William P. Kennedy. Pam Leighton is a sexy young researcher at a Washington, D.C. electric utility lobbying group. Her older married lover and boss, John Duke, dumps her at the command of his wife, Catherine, whose political ties are necessary for his ascension to Secretary of Energy with the new administration. Scorned, Pam turns whistleblower: she moves to New York City and with the help of her overly affectionate book editor friend, Glenn Hubbard, she gets to work on a tell-all book about government corruption and the lobbying business. When somehow word gets out about Pam's manuscript-which would lay bare John and his government cronies-she finds herself in terrible danger. Diamond (The Stepmother) delivers lurid details of political chicanery and lively descriptions of the besotted men in Leighton's life, but a cardboard portrayal of the heroine, whose backstory never materializes clearly enough to justify her motivations, weakens the novel's core.