Stepwives

Karen Travis, 45, has recently experienced her first and only divorce when, in Santa Fe, N.M., she rams her used VW into the back of the classic pink Cadillac owned by flamboyant Marilee Wallace, whose exes number four. The women, both middle-aged and poor, quickly become friends and hatch a plan whereby Karen can marry Marilee's first husband, millionaire Max, whose will and ill health promise Marilee the fortune he keeps insisting he's going to cut her out of. Then the two schemers learn that Max has already changed his will; after someone takes a shot at him, they must do all they can to keep him alive so he can change it back. Matters take a turn for the serious with the discovery that Marilee's mechanic has been doing more than taking joyrides in her Caddy during its many visits to his garage. Conventional Karen's education by the worldly Marilee is a worthy comic turn in itself, although their adventure, as an index of the lengths to which women with no training for anything but marriage might go to protect their futures, is only partly absurd. This first novel is fun all the way. (Aug.)