THE DEVIL'S VALET

A chance meeting with her favorite movie star snares a young woman in a web of ambition, betrayal and revenge.

Crosby Campbell thinks she’s just dragging her twin sister Katelyn to London for a spur-of-the-moment holiday, but fate and other forces at work have far more in store for her. While dining at a high-end restaurant, she runs into Vaughn O’Connell, a B-list actor she’s long had a crush on, an attraction that suddenly blossoms into a real-life romance. Crosby remains in London after her sister returns to the United States, and she soon marries Vaughn. Their fairy-tale love story is shattered one horrifying evening when Crosby is raped in an underground vault of their estate during a party, seemingly with her husband’s complicity. Upon returning to the States, Crosby retreats to the Hamptons home of Chase Partinger, a wealthy and powerful family friend who has been the twins’ benefactor since their parents’ deaths years earlier. Though she’s left London and Vaughn behind, she becomes determined to find the man who assaulted her–and why–if only to know the medical history of the father of the baby she’s now carrying. Her primary suspects are Vaughn’s estranged half-brother and an associate of her ex-husband. However, her suspicions turn in a different direction as Chase begins to encourage her to give up the search and becomes increasingly possessive of her and the baby. McKellar (A Port of No Return, 2006, etc.) has created a strong, empathetic heroine, and she renders the world she moves in in convincing detail. The over-the-top plot may prove rough going for some readers, but others will find it a rollicking good ride.

A frothy diversion worthy of a Lifetime movie.