THE RIDGWAY WOMEN
By
Richard Neely writes superfatted, prearranged dramas where money is the root of most of the evil around and violence is not far behind. Diane, a widow for ten years and estranged from her only daughter Jennifer since the night her husband was justifiably knifed and killed, meets Christopher Warren, presumably a retired Colonel and widowed a year, who claims he killed his wife in a car accident. Guilt rather than grief unites them immediately, but before long Diane begins to wonder: Warren seems to have known her husband (who left her five million) and had a rotten service record (procurement, kickbacks, court-martial)--but fortunately daughter Jennifer comes back and is around at the end which has still one more dreadful surprise. . . . Beyond its flashy readability factor--only justified by the paperback second mortgage.