Shell Games: A Novel

The newlyweds, former school sweethearts, had reconnected after a fifty-year gap. On their wedding night, she, Kate Sawyer, calls the police, claiming that he, Charlie Mull, confessed to the so-called Tylenol murders – the poisoning of seven people in Chicago in 1982. Charlie denies that he ever made such an absurd confession, and his version of events is supported by evidence placing him in Germany at the time of the murders. Kate then begins to suspect that the love of her life is building a case that her ‘hallucination’ is a sign she is losing her mind. Julie, Kate’s daughter, is caught in the middle. Is her mother really going crazy? Or is much-loved Charlie a conman seeking to assume guardianship of her and her fortune? Suspicion deepens. And spreads. Is Eric, Julie’s husband, also involved in the conspiracy? No matter how innocent they might appear on the surface, an undercurrent of mistrust, unease, and even fear flows beneath every action. Charlie’s motives, however, remain obscure, never explained as fully as they warrant, given their central role in the story. Nonetheless, Shell Games is a clever psychological thriller that will appeal to readers of the genre.