“The events leading up to the destruction of Sloane Chase’s carefully ordered world had already been set in motion.” The first line of “The Senator’s Wife,” by Liv Constantine — two sisters writing under a pseudonym — places this book solidly among their lavish thrillers: Constantine serves up piping-hot luxe locales and high-toned accessories, meaning both disposable minions (accessories to the crime) and a pair of Louboutins that count as a trinket in this world of high fashion and drama.
Greed, vengeance and other popular sins of the very rich figure in Constantine’s first thriller set in Washington. The aforementioned Sloane Chase is happily married and the head of an important philanthropic group. She unexpectedly becomes a widow when her senator husband, Robert, is killed in an accident along with his troubled cousin, Peg. Sloane remarries quickly — her new husband is also a senator, as well as a close family friend: Whit Montgomery had been unhappily married to Peg, and in the aftermath of the accident Sloane and Whit find solace in each other. The catch: Sloane has serious health problems, and Whit hires a home health aide to assist her. Sloane quickly becomes suspicious of the young, beautiful and hyper-efficient woman living in her house, doling out her pills and eating intimate dinners with her husband, who is acting strangely. Backstabbing, gaslighting and double-crossing — “The Senator’s Wife” has all you want in a thriller and all that you fear to be true about Washington. (Bantam, $28)
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