Running from the Puppet Master-D-L Nelson

Running from the Puppet Master
D-L Nelson
Five Star, Nov 2008, $25.95
ISBN 9781594147081

In 1962 in affluent Stonebridge, Massachusetts, her wealthy New England family demands Leah Stockbridge attend one of the prominent liberal art colleges for wealthy females aligned with the Ivy League or Tufts in or order to meet a proper husband. Leah refuses as she finds those courses boring and rejects her mom’s objective . Instead she registers at the Massachusetts College of Art with dreams of painting on the Left Banke in the City of Lights..

A few years later Leah plans to marry Michael, cosidered an unacceptable “foreigner” by her parents. He ends up being killed by a streetcar. Following the horrific tragedy, Leah leaves the States for Paris where she plans to become a painter. She meets Swiss banker Jean-Luc Perroset, who charms her and soon they marry. Leah no longer paints as her time is spent as a wife and mother running Jean-Luc’s vast estate. She thought they were happy together, but suddenly strange dangerous things begin to happen to Leah while Jean-Luc is non-supportive.

This exciting suspense thriller anchors in 1994, but uses numerous flashbacks to mostly the 1960s, but also the other decades all the way back to 1945. The story line starts off more as a character study of a young woman seeking her independence but once the tragedy sends her to Europe followed by her marriage, the plot veers into a woman in trouble tale. Although the moving around through the second half of the twentieth century can become confusing, it also adds depth to what is happening and why to the heroine. Fans will enjoy this tense tale of an American expatriate RUNNING FROM THE PUPPET MASTER.
Harriet Klausner