cover image Twisted Triangle: A Famous Crime Writer, a Lesbian Love Affair, and the FBI Husband's Violent Revenge

Twisted Triangle: A Famous Crime Writer, a Lesbian Love Affair, and the FBI Husband's Violent Revenge

Caitlin Rother. Jossey-Bass, $26.95 (281pp) ISBN 978-0-7879-9585-0

Though readers might pick up this title hoping to find out more about the private life of bestselling novelist Patricia Cornwell, the real protagonist is FBI agent Margo Bennett, who struck up a brief affair with Cornwell in 1992 after the author visited the training center where Bennett worked. When Margo's husband, also a Bureau agent, finds out about his wife's liaisons, he exacts a horrifying, meticulously plotted revenge, covering his tracks with lies and working the system against her. Though covered in the press, journalist and author Rother (Naked Addiction) presents the full story from Bennett's perspective for the first time. The narrative is engaging if a little slow to start (covering the early years of her marriage), and Rother is a fine interviewer, able to penetrate some of Bennett's most traumatic memories. Rother's prose is not the most graceful, and recreated dialogue can feel forced, but Bennett's tale is gripping, and should appeal to those who want to see a different, darker and more personal side of the lives of FBI agents.