Diana Diamond The Stepmother

The Stepmother

Diana Diamond

St. Martin's, Jul 2005, $24.95

ISBN: 0312337372

In Florida, wealthy sixty-five years old Steven Armstrong underwent knee replacement surgery and subsequent therapy. He soon falls in love with his physical therapist thirty-three years old Charlene "Charlie" Hendricks, who raises a young teen Tara by herself. He informs his son Matthew, who replaced him on the board of Ucandoit, a chain of hardware warehouses that he plans to ask Charlie to marry him. Matthew tells his two siblings; Hollywood actor Gary and art show sponsor Trish.

Realizing marrying a kind older man would help her daughter, Charlie accepts. However, someone is unhappy with her marrying the self-made millionaire and tries to kill Charlie, but fails. A second attempt ends tragically with Steven dead and the police suspecting the new rich widow. She is unable to sit idly by while suspecting one of her step children is trying to kill her. To save herself, Charlie investigates the homicide assuming that she was the target not Steven in spite of evidence to the contrary.

Though the title sounds like a poor B movie and the premise seems unlikely that at least one of the adult professional children would turn to murder, readers will appreciate this strong amateur sleuth thriller that grips fans with surprising twists. The storyline is fast-paced from the first attempt to kill Charlie and never slows down until the final twist that will stun the audience. The key to this diamond of a tale is that like Charlie, readers will believe one of Steven's children is the killer, but which one makes for a fine tale.

Harriet Klausner