Crazymaker

There's a morbidly gripping story within this overlong, somewhat dubious true-crime tale. Ed Hobson, a working-class widower fresh from a disastrous marriage, fixates on Sueanne Sallee, a queenly divorcee from suburban Kansas City. After Ed agrees to Sueanne's financial demands, they marry and merge their troubled families. But Sueanne, a master manipulator, battles Ed's son Chris for control of Ed. Eventually, she offers her son Jimmy money to kill Chris and discards Chris's billfold to suggest that he ran away. Jimmy's accomplice soon spills the beans. A stranger story ensues. Ed divorces Sueanne--who has denied any role in the conspiracy--but remarries her four months later, claiming to believe in her innocence. He sticks by her even as she goes on trial and is convicted of murder. O'Donnell ( The Confessions of T. E. Lawrence ) has tracked down a wealth of details to reconstruct the protagonists' lives and psyches. However, he too often employs lengthy expository quotes and protracted stretches of trial transcript. Moreover, O'Donnell neglects to inform the reader of his sources (interviews? court documents?), thus weakening his reconstructions' legitimacy. The 1980 crime is also explored in Andy Hoffman's Family Affairs , forthcoming from Pocket in June. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild alternates. (July)