Young Rich Widows

Belle (The Personal Assistant) teams up with Layne Fargo (They Never Learn), Cate Holahan (Her Three Lives), and Vanessa Lillie (Blood Sisters) for a freewheeling caper about four women who join forces in the 1980s to clean up the mess made by their deceased better halves. Four partners at a prominent Rhode Island law firm are flying to Manhattan for a client meeting when their private plane explodes. The deceased—three men and one woman—leave behind former model Justine, sexy second wife Camille, mama bear Krystal, and stripper Meredith. Thanks to office politics and personal resentments, the widows can’t stand each other. The funeral for their partners is barely over before they’re approached by a gangster who demands they repay the $4 million he claims the dead lawyers owe him—or else. Forced to band together to find the money and stay one step ahead of a ruthless assassin, the widows embark on a madcap investigation into their partners’ pasts, uncovering a deadly conspiracy in the process. Each author writes alternating chapters from the perspective of each main character, providing plenty of variations in style and voice to keep readers entertained, even as the campy plot occasionally skids into ridiculousness. This is frothy good fun. Agents: (for Belle) Nikki Terpilowski, Holloway Literary; (for Fargo) Sharon Pelletier, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret; (for Holahan) Paula Munier, Talcott Notch; (for Lillie) Jamie Carr, Book Group (Apr.)