Desperate Deadly Widows: A Novel
“Let me in there!” Krystal elbows me out of the way and starts mashing buttons with both hands, a random and rapid fire game of Whac-A-Mole, and the controls beep as an alarm goes off somewhere above our heads.
“Oh my God, is that bad?” Meredith asks.
“It's not good,” Krystal yells back as she smacks another button, and a foghorn belches a siren so deafening, I jump high enough to pop my shoes three inches off the floor.
It seemed all their problems were over at the end of Young Rich Widows after the four women, bitter enemies at first, forged an allegiance to deal with the aftermath of their significant others’ deaths in a fiery plane explosion—one that revealed all sorts of financial malfeasance as well as sordid affairs. But now the four widows are back—their 80s hairstyles big, their shoulder pads even bigger, and in even more dire straits in the latest book about the women, Desperately Deadly Widows.
Sure, Justine is finishing up law school but she’s living with her in-laws, having had to sell her McMansion, and juggling work, attending class, and taking care of her six year old. Krystal now runs her deceased husband’s law firm with the help of her disastrous son Rom Romero who’d rather party than practice. But her number one attorney, a preppy who graduated from Yale, has barricaded himself in his office and his stealing her clients to start his own business.
Camille’s making money setting up rich men in compromising situations. She just landed a big one, the second wife of Mayor Tom wants her to film him in a compromising situation, which should be a piece of cake as the mayor is known for his less than stellar commitment to marriage. Unfortunately, the champagne she serves him in a private room at the Luna Lodge is poisoned, and within seconds he’s dead. Camille makes it worse when she punches the cop for copping a feel. Meredith, a former stripper and now owner of the Luna Lounge, a tacky but very lucrative strip club, sees her business dry up. After all, how many men want to frequent a strip club where a death occurred, and the press and police are present?
In other words, the four need help. When Mayor Tom’s second wife, fearful that the cops will look at her as the most likely suspect, offers them wads of cash to help find the real killer, how can they say no?
There are complications, of course. Krystal’s biggest client is the mayor’s first wife. And so, they have to tread lightly, making sure that the two wives don’t know the women are taking money from both of them. But that’s not all. More arrests, more trauma, and they find that the people they trust are playing a more dangerous game, one that can send them to jail or even worse.
As wacky and slightly over the top as the first book, mystery writers Layne Fargo, Cate Holahan, Vanessa Lillie, and Kimberly Belle whose book The Paris Widow recently won the Edgar for best paperback, take turns writing chapters told from the point of view of each woman. It’s a great period piece—bringing back memories of when Dynasty and Dallas were hit television series in an era of oversized cell phones and Aqua Net hairspray—as the widows resort to all means possible to salvage their new lives—even if it means blackmail, backstabbing, party crashing and leads to shots being fired and trying to control a runaway yacht heading toward the rocks in Narragansett Bay.