A WOMAN BETRAYED

Delinsky's mass market novels, national bestsellers for years, have been translated into 25 languages. A number are being reissued in 2001, with this 1991 novel to appear for the first time in hardcover. Highly competent, optimistic 38-year-old Laura Frye is secure in a long marriage, the mother of two bright, spirited kids and the owner of Cherries, a popular restaurant. As the novel begins, she is faced with any woman's worst nightmare—her husband Jeffrey, a CPA, has mysteriously disappeared from the family's comfortable home in the elite college town of Northampton, Mass. Laura's anguish at his disappearance is exacerbated when Taylor "Tack" Jones, with the criminal investigation division of the IRS, informs her that Jeffrey is suspected of tax fraud. Jeff did spend liberally. Besides sustaining his family, he backed Laura when she opened Cherries and had recently bought himself a longed-for Porsche. But can he really be a criminal? The Fryes' best friend, classy lawyer Daphne Phillips, shares Laura's disbelief, but the family assets are frozen and Laura can't pay Cherries' bills or her own. Moreover, from the outset, the local media revels in the family's predicament. By the time Jeff's bachelor older brother and free spirit, Christian, turns up, Laura is distraught and the reader agonized: what more could possibly happen to a nice family? A lot, of course. Melodramatic incidents and coincidences abound, but the sociology-trained storyteller makes each of her characters captivating in this compelling tale. (Nov.)

Forecast:The low price will help readers forget that this still-fresh novel is a reissue.