As Patient as Death — Karen Wiesner

Until death do us part... Lisa and Falcon's Bend Police Department Detective Pete Shasta are enjoying roles as Mommy and Daddy to their adopted baby boy. Despite the radical adjustment, they've never been happier or more fulfilled as individuals and as a couple. Seeing the contrast of her own marriage and that of her neighbor's, Lisa can't help sticking her nose in where it doesn't belong--and not for the first time... Sweet, ever-hopeful Eva has suffered the ravages of cancer for most of her life. Just after she was diagnosed with recurrent cancer, she met Jerome Boca and he'd swept her off her feet in a whirlwind romance with a fairytale wedding to follow. A little more than a year ago, the newlyweds moved into the subdivision Lisa and Pete reside in Falcon's Bend. Eva believes in being a submissive wife to her husband and Jerome is Mr. Charming--to the point that Lisa doesn't trust him one little bit, especially when Eva opens up to her and admits he's not everything they've both portrayed him to be. Lisa knows there's something criminal going on, but Pete refuses to get involved in private domestic matters. In her own sleuthing, Lisa discovers that, not only has Jerome taken out an immense life insurance policy on his dying wife, but he's been married twice before...in both cases, to terminally ill women. But that's only the beginning of Lisa's fears. Unexpectedly, Eva gets the good news that she's in remission. Will a man who's been as patient as death with his wife's suffering become a killer when the goal he'd been waiting to be realized is thwarted?