A Circle of Wives

A Circle of Wives by Alice LaPlante

Let's dip into the archives for this suspenseful thriller published in March of 2014.....Written by the same author of  Turn of Mind, this twisted tale of murder and deceit is a good choice for a cold winter night by the fire.

Dr. John Taylor is dead, a victim of a lethal dose of potassium injected by an unknown killer. The list of suspects is long and complicated, considering the fact that John was a bigamist married to three women at the same time. Quite a juggling act for the renowned plastic surgeon who devoted his life to transforming the lives of hideously scarred children. He had the power to heal.

Before his untimely death, Dr. Taylor also has the power to manipulate the women he loves. There's Deborah, his first wife of twenty-five years and mother of his three children. Poised and elegant, she loves her sprawling home and high society friends....and she's well aware of  the other "wives". MJ is the exact opposite of Deborah; an earthy free-spirit who craves the exhilarating passion that John instills in her. Helen is a driven, ambitious oncologist, perhaps the one who has the most in common with her discreet lover. Unbeknownst to him, Helen is carrying John's child, and she knows what his reaction would have been; children are not part of the equation.

It's up to Detective Samantha Adams to sift through the facts and alibis to expose the killer. To complicate matters, there's a hauntingly beautiful colleague of Dr. Taylor's who claims she was in line to become wife number four while he secretly planned to discard the other three. And what about the prominent physicians who shared his practice? They vehemently disliked John's all-consuming humanitarian efforts in a clinic where they could make vast amounts of money on vain patients' cosmetic procedures.

Author Alice LaPlante does a superb job with detail. She chronicles the lives of each suspect so the reader begins to understand the web of lies-but not until the final chapter are the startling answers revealed.