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ARC for review - received as part of Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ First Reads program.

A solid 3.5 stars for this, my second LaPlante this month....and there's a clear pattern here. LaPlante writes mysteries a la Jodi Picoult but here the character studies are far more important than the whodunit reveal (which both here and in Turn of Mind were rather underwhelming). We learn quickly that Dr. John Taylor has turned up dead, possibly murdered, in a Palo Alto hotel room and then we learn that he had three wives and was living very different lives with each of them. The story is told from the perspectives of each of the three, plus Samantha Adams, a local police detective assigned to the case. LaPlante is very successful in giving each of the four leads a strong voice and if the murder is rather banal the women are each interesting in their own ways. As with Picoult this is a thinking person's beach read and a solid book that will likely be quite popular - I just hope that in her next book LaPlante is able to create a plot twist worthy of her strong writing.