The Secret Lives of Married Women (Hard Case Crime)
1 journaler for this copy...
I hesitated between a 7 and an 8. This includes two independent stories, but there are two characters from the first novella who appear again in the second one. I liked much more the first story than the second - I'd give it a 9, and the latter I'd give a 6.
The Man under the House
Leda (what a beautiful name!) has moved being pregnant from her second child. Her husband is a Russian emigrant who doesn't like to talk about the past and has accepted that he'd never see his parents or his only friend - now imprisoned in a Russian jail - again.
When they move to this Seattle suburbia, their new neighbour is also renovating his house, and Jack, the handyman, offers to work at Leda's home. She accepts, as he charges less, but then Jack starts harassing her. Leda is afraid to tell what's happening to Stas, her husband, for reasons of her own.
Abel's Cane
Nan starts working as a reader for Abel, a wealthy developer who has built mostly non-profit buildings: for the blind, for children with disabilities. Abel is a self-made man, whose sister, a struggling single mother, won't accept her help. Abel is a blind man, and Nan learns how he wants people to read for him. Nan admits to him that she has a dubious past, working as a submissive prostitute in a den.
Nan feels bound to Abel, who won't have any kind of sexual / sentimental relationship with her, as he's happily married and with an adopted child. She becomes his secretary, and is efficient and hard-working. Abel is taken to court - a cop in disguise offered him to embezzle some money from a government project, and he accepted because that would benefit his sister.
Abel goes to a lawyer, and it happens that she is Leda's sister. She is wealthy and successful, but her marriage to Darren is boring and is going through a shaky phase, especially because they seem to be unable to have children. She wants to avoid Abel going to jail in spite of his admission of guilt - everybody knows that deals like that and much worse are carried out every day, but he's going to be an escape goat and the main possibility of the plaintiff to get into politics.
The Man under the House
Leda (what a beautiful name!) has moved being pregnant from her second child. Her husband is a Russian emigrant who doesn't like to talk about the past and has accepted that he'd never see his parents or his only friend - now imprisoned in a Russian jail - again.
When they move to this Seattle suburbia, their new neighbour is also renovating his house, and Jack, the handyman, offers to work at Leda's home. She accepts, as he charges less, but then Jack starts harassing her. Leda is afraid to tell what's happening to Stas, her husband, for reasons of her own.
Abel's Cane
Nan starts working as a reader for Abel, a wealthy developer who has built mostly non-profit buildings: for the blind, for children with disabilities. Abel is a self-made man, whose sister, a struggling single mother, won't accept her help. Abel is a blind man, and Nan learns how he wants people to read for him. Nan admits to him that she has a dubious past, working as a submissive prostitute in a den.
Nan feels bound to Abel, who won't have any kind of sexual / sentimental relationship with her, as he's happily married and with an adopted child. She becomes his secretary, and is efficient and hard-working. Abel is taken to court - a cop in disguise offered him to embezzle some money from a government project, and he accepted because that would benefit his sister.
Abel goes to a lawyer, and it happens that she is Leda's sister. She is wealthy and successful, but her marriage to Darren is boring and is going through a shaky phase, especially because they seem to be unable to have children. She wants to avoid Abel going to jail in spite of his admission of guilt - everybody knows that deals like that and much worse are carried out every day, but he's going to be an escape goat and the main possibility of the plaintiff to get into politics.
