On Turpentine Lane

Best-selling novelist Lipman (The View from Penthouse B; The Family Man) has returned with her delightful gifts for dialog and wordplay on bright display. Faith Frankel, who works in development at her former alma mater, has just bought a little dollhouse of a home with a checkered past, without informing her fiancé Stuart, who is walking across the United States, searching for himself. Just when Faith is beginning to lose confidence in a future with Stuart, a creepy collection of Polaroids is discovered in her adorable attic, and she is accused of malfeasance at her job. Faith attempts to contact Stuart for much-needed TLC, but he's hardly forthcoming in the empathy department, which sets into motion several outrageously fun plot twists, including fine art copycatting, intrusive parents, and matchmaking and unmaking. The narration by award-winning Mia Barron strikes just the right combination of witty sarcasm and charming storytelling.