Her Prodigal Husband

In this canny spin-off of her Brigid Quinn series, Masterman (Maternal Instinct) turns the focus to frustrated novelist Alice Einstein. After failing to make good on her early literary promise, Alice has spent the last several years writing greeting card messages while living with her younger sister, Liesl, in Saddlebrooke, Ariz. Ever since Liesl’s husband, Sam, disappeared a decade earlier, kindhearted Liesl has concerned herself with such causes as migrant housing and environmental conservation. Chaos swoops into the sisters’ lives when Sam suddenly returns to Saddlebrooke; Alice is skeptical of his motives, but an ecstatic Liesl welcomes him with open arms. As Alice tries—with the help of PI Brigid Quinn—­to find out why Sam has reappeared, she realizes she may have the material for a thriller that’ll put her back in the publishing game—or at least get her agent to return her calls. What Alice doesn’t bet on, however, is just how much she’ll learn about her sister over the course of her and Brigid’s investigation. Masterman piles on the twists, schemes, and false assumptions but grounds each revelation in the lives of her three-dimensional characters. The results are wickedly satisfying. (Jan.)