“The Senator’s Wife” begins with a woman who certainly fits that title character’s role. Author Liv Constantine presents Sloane, a woman who has been married to not just one senator, but two. Her second marriage to a senator occurs just two years after the tragic deaths of her first husband, a senator, and the death of the wife of her second husband, Whit. In their grief, the two find solace together, and Sloane is hoping to find even a small amount of the happiness she had experienced with Robert, her first husband.

The sister authors who write as Liv Constantine excel at bringing us into the lives of wealthy high society. Sloane is used to attending State dinners at the White House, and she entertains in her home for two hundred guests effortlessly. She and her first husband had many beautiful homes and the staff to run them smoothly. Now she and Whit live in the Washington, DC home with a small staff.

We learn that Sloane has Lupus, and because of the disease and the side effects from its treatment, she must have hip replacement surgery. She also runs a foundation that she and Robert had created jointly from their family wealth. Both wanted to share their good fortune, their inherited money, with others, and their foundation helps many battered women while performing other beneficent deeds. To help her recuperate from the surgery and to help her with her administrative duties with the foundation, Sloane and Whit hire Athena, a woman recommended by a health care agency.

The story is told in third person, but from the specific points of view of several characters. This narrative strategy allows us to know these characters’ thoughts, or at least as many as the authors are prepared to share with us. We hear mostly from Sloane, Whit and Athena, but also from Rosemary, who is Robert’s mother and the grandmother to Emmy, Sloane’s daughter. While Rosemary is not happy that Sloane has remarried, she becomes suspicious about Whit and his intentions. She also doesn’t trust Athena, so she hires a private detective to look into both.

We see Sloane’s descent into despair as she gets sicker and sicker while her Lupus appears to worsen as a result of her surgery. Her daughter is across the country at her dream job, and Sloane has few close friends with whom she can share her fears. The signs all point to one reality regarding whom Sloane should trust, but can we rely on what the authors are sharing? Just what is being concealed from us?

One of the factors that make Liv Constantine books so enjoyable is their ability to write dialogue and action that make us feel real empathy for many of the characters. We really like Sloane and her morals and beliefs. We aren’t sure how we feel about Rosemary at first, but we do know that she is doing the best she can with the information she has. There is much that the authors are hiding, and that becomes apparent the closer we get to the end of this brilliantly plotted book. We are taken to the very edge of what we are willing to believe and then brought back to see that justice –sometimes — is delivered.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.