LAELIA

Garnett tracks the fortunes of three middle-aged African-American sisters as they shed their ailing husbands and embark on new life adventures in her prim, occasionally stilted debut. After years of living apart, Rebecca, Claudia and Gracelyn Cates have settled down, along with their husbands, in the stately Peoria home where they grew up. Rebecca's husband, Jake, has brain damage from head trauma; Claudia's Timothy is in the final, devastating stages of alcoholism; and Gracelyn's Bernard has been ravaged by bone cancer. Much of the book chronicles the sisters' efforts to "put their men away without scandal" in a nursing home, while the major subplot revolves around Rebecca's scheme to oust the corrupt, misogynistic preacher of First Baptist, Reverend Wilson, and become deaconess. She's darkly pleased to learn that Wilson has misappropriated church funds to finance breast implants for his wife, but fate supplies a tender twist when she falls for Randall Leighton, the doctor she tricks to get the news. Garnett is a compassionate, competent storyteller, but quiet plotting produces little drama, and a keen focus on the minutiae of daily life—Rebecca's orchid business, the sisters' Sunday tea ritual—slows the pace. The Reverend Wilson's wife steps forward to play an unexpected role at the end, and a last-ditch plot twist concerning Jake's past indiscretions is little more than an afterthought. Garnett's solid, well-drawn characters are this novel's greatest strength. (Jan.)