Imperfect Strangers

Step one: The perfect murder

Sandy Kinsolving's once-glittering life hangs by a thread; his future depends on his wife's inheritance and whether or not she's about to throw him out on his ear. What he wouldn't give for a solution to his money and marriage problems.

If this were an Alfred Hitchcock movie, the solution would be obvious. Enter a stranger with wife problems of his own, who offers a violent—and mutually advantageous—proposal.

Then in the time it takes to whisper a word, Kinsolving'...