"exciting romantic suspense"

Her stepfather stuns seventeen year old Anna Langtry when he chooses her as THE THIRD WIFE of his brother. Though polygamy is outlawed in the country, the remote True Life Latter Day Saints think otherwise leaving Anna with the choice of wedding a much older man to beget his children or fleeing into the night. Anna chooses escape.

Anna works diligently and fifteen years later is a successful Probation Officer in Denver. One of her clients is confessed embezzler Joe Mackenzie just released from prison after a four-year stay. Joe insists he was innocent and confessed as a means of shortening his sentence. He plans to find the true culprit. Though he mistrusts the judicial system, he cannot stop Anna from helping him with his endeavor as she shockingly believes him in spite of his hardened cynicism. However, when Anna agreed to help Joe, she never expected a return to the community she fled as a teenage spouse.

As expected from highly regarded Jasmine Cresswell, THE THIRD WIFE is an exciting romantic suspense tale that once it gets into gear never slows down. The plot simmers slowly at first as the audience meets the lead characters, but once the action begins, the novel moves at a rapid clip until the conclusion. Joe is an interesting individual who reluctantly remains an idealist though his exterior seems harder than a diamond. Anna is a wonderful heroine who makes something of her self in spite of the odds, but readers will question her involvement in Joe's quest. THE THIRD WIFE is a first rate book that sub-genre fans will find pleasurable.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 13, 2002

Summary

On her wedding night, 17-year-old Anna Langtry stole her husband's car and fled into darkness, racing toward freedom. She was desperate to escape the nightmare of her Colorado home -- an isolated rural community that had forced her into a polygamous marriage as an older man's third wife.

Fifteen years later, Anna is working as a federal probation officer in Denver. A fighter for the underdog, she nevertheless can't escape the cynicism of her profession. She doesn't expect much from her new parolee, just the usual sob story about being innocent. But Joe Mackenzie is different.

A white-collar criminal convicted of embezzlement, Joe is tough, quiet, determined ... and innocent. Now he's looking for justice, and he's about to pull Anna into his world, one that will lead her back to the past she'd left behind. One that will reach out to ensnare them both in its dangerous secrets and deadly schemes, where the passion between them is threatened by the grim reach of murder.