To the End of Her Days

The setting for Macdonald's new historical romance (after A Woman Possessed) is the Cornish town of Penzance during WW I, but it might as well be Peyton Place for all the secrets and sexual high jinks it hosts. Jessica Lanyon nurses her ailing war-hero husband with the help of neighbor David Carne, a physician. Though Jessica and David love one another, their relationship remains platonic even after Jessica is widowed, because David is married to an invalid wife who controls the purse strings. Then mysterious Lorna Sancreed arrives, declaring that her recently deceased fiance was wounded in the same accident in which Jessica's husband was injured. The two women immediately become fast friends and Lorna becomes Jessica's permanent house guest. Before long, her new housemate is convincing Jessica to make a move on David and then to open a sanitarium with Lorna as her partner and David as their doctor. Meanwhile, behind naive Jessica's back, David is busy seducing Lorna, while Lorna seduces someone else and David's wife is also up to no good. And another shocking event is yet to occur. The pages don't exactly fly by, but they do offer the well-wrought historical details, plot twists and vivid characters that his fans expect. (Aug.)