Patricia MacDonald Married to a Stranger

Married to a Stranger

Patricia MacDonald

Atria, Jul 2006, $24.00

ISBN: 0743269551

Psychologist Emma Hollis works at the Wrightman Youth Crisis Center whose director Dr. Burke Hunter married her best friend Natalie. However diagnosed as bi-polar, Natalie committed suicide. Emma is hesitant to have Burke serve as her fianc 's best man at their small wedding in a few days. Burke insists on facing it because David is a close friend and he introduced the couple to each other. Following the nuptials, David and Emma head to a secluded cabin in the New Jersey woods for a honeymoon.

On their first day, David vanishes while outside chopping wood and a masked man tries to kill the pregnant Emma. A hunter hears Emma's screams; rushes over to help but the intruder kills the Good Samaritan with David's abandoned ax. Emma takes the hunter's weapon and the attacker flees just before David reappears. The police think David is trying to kill her especially when she is almost thrownoff at a train station; even Emma begins to wonder about her spouse.

Fans of Mary Higgins Clark and Nancy Taylor Rosenberg will find MARRIED TO A STRANGER a mesmerizing reading experience. Although the audience will agree with Emma and the cops that David is the prime suspect, others could also be the culprit. As with Hitchcock's terrific Suspicion, readers will wonder until the very end whether David wants his wife dead. Patricia MacDonald is one of the top suspense writers of the past few years (see THE GIRL NEXT DOOR).

Harriet Klausner