Three separate lives eerily intersect in this effective if lightweight mystery from U.K. veteran Fraser (Next Door to Murder
). Whenbusinessman James Markham dumps his fiancée to marry a near stranger, his family is suspicious of his elusive interior designer wife, Abigail. Callum Firbank, a loving husband, dedicated friend and esteemed neighbor, appears to have the perfect life until one ostensibly innocuous outing sets off a perplexing and dangerous chain of events. Finally, pleasant hotel owner Jill Irving loves life, but she can't escape a dark secret. All the principal characters appear to have nothing in common, except a stranger who enters their lives and wreaks havoc. Only in the book's final pages does the reader truly understand their connection and the root of their terror. Fraser succeeds in building an intricate, complex plot, but some may find the disjointedness of the narrative a bit confusing. (June)
