Murder in Disguise

Murder in Disguise: Fran Orenstein

Within this world there are people that often are paranoid and delusional. Some think that events happen as a result of how they perceive them. Agnes Warren is one. She is paranoid, demented and bent on taking revenge on a famous romance writer using another name to hide her identity from her. Lily Aaron/Lillyann Allon is now Lily Cooper hoping to live with her husband and two sons with no drama or danger added to her life. Careful not to even put her face on her new novels, hiding her identity from the world what is about to happen will shake the very core of her existence.
Maryn Marcus is her agent and is excited that she is about to be award for her romance novels and is invited to New York to accept it. But, she can’t! The news hits Lily and she and Michael along with Maryn devise a plan to disguise her if she decides to attend. However, Agnes has her own plans to hide in plain sight and she just might succeed.

Her brother Teddy lost his life and was killed by someone named Laurel not Lily. She relates her feelings about Lily and thinks that she is personally responsible for his death of course she is wrong. Plans are made to help Lily find a new identity and but realizing that she is placing herself in danger, her children and that of both sets of parents, her agent opts to go to New York to accept the award but what she does triggers the ire of a dangerous killer.

Plans are made and then reversed as Lily and Michael decide that it would be too dangerous for her to be seen in public and now, they are considering more children. Maryn puts herself in the limelight and decides to attend the conference and accept the award in Lily’s place and manages to speak and disguise herself as Lily to get more hype and publicity for the author.

However, we need to understand Agnes and her motives and to what lengths she will go to in order to act out her anger, revenge on Lily. Different disguises, people at her job she shuns and realizes that she is not a normal person and does not interact well with anyone until she finds a way to get information from unsuspecting agencies about the conference and where it might be and if Lily will attend.

Changing names, trying to understand how to use a computer to access the information she needs, locations that would hide her identity and the gun she would use to hopefully take aim at Lily, what happens will let readers know that author Fran Orenstein has once again created a killer so diabolical and dangerous you wonder whether she will succeed or not.

Things take on different turns as Lily realizes she is having another child and her condition needs to be carefully monitored and the security around her home increased. While she and Michael were securing her family and themselves, Agnes was calling to learn more about the signings what Lily might attend and where the awards would be given out. So paranoid she even wiped her fingerprints off of the books she used for her research and anything that she met to make sure her identity stayed hidden. All the while recreating her thoughts about Teddy, thinking about him and often wondering just how she would take out her revenge and calling herself Warwoman.

At the conference she is befriended by someone and must be careful not to call herself Agnes but instead Thea Walker. She talks to herself, pushed people, at times acts calmly and the people where she worked took a sigh of relieve when she finally quit.

The event started but no one expected the unexpected and where did the shots ring out from and what happened when Maryn takes centerstage and the outcome when Lily learns it takes causes her more than physical and mental anxiety but guilt too. Lives are lost and Maryn is injured and the police are involved. Friends of Dr. Cooper and officials at the hospital work with them to sort things out as Lily calls a close friend and Maryn’s partner to go to the hospital but they are careful and are not allowing anyone to see her until they are sure she is out of danger from the killer and her physical problems and injuries are under control.

Things spiral in many different directions as we hear Agnes’s voice and realize that she is angry, more deranged and Lily senses she is far from done on her rampage of revenge. Lily is not having another child and she is in no condition to travel to New York and at times she makes rash and impetus decisions and Michael must reign her back. With the support of both sets of parents she might be okay but is Agnes out of the picture? Did anyone witness what happened to her and can the police find a description of her that will take away her disguises and let them see the real Agnes?
With the police searching for her, lawyers on both sides to represent Maryn on her side as a victim and Lily and Michael on their side since they are involved, Lily recounts what happened to Teddy and the result will shock readers.

Author Fran Orenstein created a character in Agnes Warren who is so deranged, so psychiatric and justifies her own actions and thinks she is right in her thinking never realizing the truth about what really happened to her brother and who really took his life. Some endings leave room for readers to wonder what happens next and if a killer is caught when masks are lifted, real faces are uncovered, and the hidden truths come out when we learn the truth about who is hidden under the veil of Murder in Disguise.

Characters that are well developed, vividly defined and whose actions match who they are as Agnes Warren takes on L.A.Cooper thinking she will pull off the perfect Murder in Disguise.

Fran Lewis: Just reviews/MJ Magazine/MJ Network