The Other Woman

To smitten Emily Havistock, the narrator of British author Jones’s engrossing-if-flawed first novel, sexy London IT recruiter Adam Banks seems like the perfect catch—until she discovers Adam has a pretty big catch himself: Pammie, his meddlesome widowed mum with whom he seems hopelessly enmeshed. As Emily becomes painfully aware, her sexagenarian adversary will stop at nothing to split up the couple (including faking a breast cancer diagnosis), and, Emily starts to suspect, might even have had a hand in the death of Adam’s previous girlfriend. Far from having the desired effect, however, Pammie’s machinations make feisty Emily all the more determined to land her guy. The startling if unbelievable twist at the end of the road will spin readers’ heads, but not enough to compensate for all the contrivance to engineer it. Still, fans of plot-driven psychological thrillers will enjoy the ride. 200,000-copy announced first printing. Agent: Tanera Simons, Darley Anderson (U.K.). (Aug.)

This review has been updated to remove potential spoilers.