In-Laws and Outlaws

Veteran mystery writer Paul ( The Renewable Virgin ) here crafts an absorbing, suitably horrific mystery that centers around the wealthy and influential Decker clan, a politically powerful and much-publicized Boston family experiencing a nightmare: someone is out to get them. When Gillian Clifford Decker, widow of Stuart Decker, reads that Stuart's father, Raymond, has been killed in a fire, she ignores a longstanding estrangement and hurries to Boston to comfort Raymond's widow, Connie. Fearful and indecisive, Connie is sure of a conspiracy: within the last four months, two of her teenage nephews and one niece have died in suspicious and particularly gruesome accidents; four years earlier, Connie and Raymond's son Theo had been kidnapped and murdered in a grisly and sensational case. Gillian, invited to the family enclave on Martha's Vineyard, gradually feels that she is being involved in an elaborate charade. But to what purpose? Astute readers may spot the key to this intense story early enough to find the finale unduly melodramatic--but the tale is nonetheless a potent mix of deception, manipulation and murder. (Oct.)