Title:	A Deadly Marriage
	Author:	Roderic Jeffries
	Published:	August 3, 2015, Endeavour Press
	No. of Pages:	386
	Cover Price:	$6.99 Paperback, $3.99 Kindle

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A Deadly Marriage by Roderic Jeffries, was originally published in 1967 and has been re-released by Endeavour Books. Anyone who has been around narcissists knows that they are manipulative, vindictive, self centered, malevolent, and they are never satisfied; anything wrong in their lives is always somebody else’s fault. When David Plesence first met Catalina on a cruise ship, she was charming, he fell in love, and they were married. Once married, however, Catalina was unhappy that David wasn’t as rich as he had first appeared; nothing pleased her, and of course she wasn’t happy. David wanted a divorce, and because Catalina wasn’t willing to give him one, he fell in love with someone else. Catalina decided to punish both of them and get her revenge. As the story unfolds, readers will be appalled at what Catalina is capable of, and will wonder how she is continually able to find new ways for revenge without bringing suspicion to herself.

The story is fast moving, and will actually seem plausible to those who are privy to the behaviors of people like Catalina. There are some holes in the story that readers will wonder how they came to be, like how George Cabbot’s (the first murder victim) wife was sure that Catalina was her husband’s murderer, and was able to blackmail her.

One problem with this version of the book is that there are dozens of typos and errors throughout, which most likely weren’t there in the original version. They don’t make the book unreadable, but it is still a bit irritating.

There are several appealing things about the novel: It is set in London, where things are not the same as in the US; words and phrases are very English. The legal mores are decidedly different in the UK, so that the courtroom scenes are interesting; the characters are appealing (well, most are and they will remind readers of real people), well-developed, and unique. There is also plenty of suspense which builds throughout.

The ending is fairly abrupt; while readers are quite sure they know who the murderer is, and are frustrated at how she gets away with things and looks good to everyone around (typical of narcissistic people), while at the same time manipulating so that an innocent is believed by most of the village residents and police to have committed unspeakable crimes, including attempts to murder Catalina.

A Deadly Marriage is an old fashioned murder mystery that will appeal to many readers. Jeffries, whose first book was published in 1950, is a well-respected writer of dozens of English novels and is worth reading.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.