Widow's Web by Gene Lyons

 

The story doesn't ring true to the police called to investigate.  A man lies dead in his bedroom, a gunshot to the head causing his death.  His wife, Mary Lee Orsini, says that she found the door locked and when she unlocked it and went in, found her husband dead.  She says that she and her eleven year old daughter had been in the house the night before and heard nothing and that she slept in her daughter's room as she was feeling ill. Once it becomes clear that this is not a suicide, she has lots of possible perpetrators for the police to investigate, including her brother.

Orsini is a master manipulator.  She is compelling and people are fascinated with her, even if her stories don't hold up.  She claims a college degree although she didn't finish high school.  She claims connections with prestigious people and insists that powerful criminals have it out for her.  Her attorney, Bill McArthur, isn't sure his client is innocent but he is sure the police don't have enough evidence to take the case to trial.  When a grand jury refuses to return an indictment, Orsini is set free and McArthur believes his job is done.

But it isn't.  Orsini attempts for months to pull him into her web of lies and fabrications.  She has several boyfriends during this time and uses them to further the plans and plots constantly spinning in her mind.  Things take a more deadly turn when McArthur's wife is found shot and dead in his house.  Orsini, who by now is upset that McArthur never took her up on her flirtations, does what she can to cast suspicion on him.  Before it's all over, a sheriff with political aspirations becomes part of Orsini's web and McArthur is hounded in and out of court for months.  

This case took place in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Readers will be as fascinated with Mary Lee Orsini and her manipulations as those caught up in the case were.  She is an example of a narcissistic sociopath and her need to be in the spotlight cost the lives of two innocent people.  This book is recommended for readers of true crime.