"Die for You" by Lisa Unger; Crown/Shaye Areheart (368 pages, $24)

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Smart women can do dumb things, especially when they are in love, especially when they trust their partner, especially when a life together seems so perfect.

Isabel Connelly, a best-selling novelist, is shocked out of her complicity in Lisa Unger's gripping, if at times melodramatic fourth novel. When Isabel's husband, Marcus Raine, doesn't come home one evening, she gets mad — the one flaw in their marriage was an affair he had a year ago — then she gets worried. When she goes to his Manhattan office the next day, she's attacked and ends up in the hospital. Marcus' co-workers have been killed, their home has been ransacked and their joint bank accounts wiped out.

Her husband wasn't the successful video game designer that Isabel thought he was, nor was Marcus Raine his real name. As the insightful N.Y.P.D. detective Grady Crow leads the investigation, Isabel tries to find out just who was this impostor as she copes with the realization that her five-year marriage was a sham. The search will take both Isabel and Grady from Manhattan's myriad neighborhoods to the heart of Prague.

Unger keeps the emotional level high and the concern for Isabel strong in "Die for You." Although the novel occasionally dips into Lifetime movie of the week territory, Unger keeps the plot centered on Isabel, a personable, intelligent character who makes more than her share of mistakes. Her determination to find Marcus is understandable, even if the truth destroys her. While women will shake their heads in disbelief at how Isabel paid such little attention to her finances after her marriage, Unger parallels Isabel's predicament to that of her mother and sister.

While the plot is filled danger and intrigue, "Die for You's" personal story about one woman makes the stakes that much higher. Any woman can relate to this story and emphasize with Isabel's costly decisions.

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