When Mirabella Matthews inherits a villa in the South of France from her beloved Aunt Jolly, it's a bittersweet gain. As much as she is eager to take possession of the famous Villa Romantica, a sprawling home perched high atop the hills overlooking the Mediterranean, she's even more intent to find out who murdered her chatty, elegant, septuagenarian aunt.

En route to her new home via the Paris-to-Nice train, Mirabella, the somewhat eccentric, London-based author of bestselling suspense novels, makes the acquaintance of waif-like Verity Real, a woman fleeing her husband, an unfaithful Argentinian polo player who married her for her money only to find she had very little cash indeed. In an impulsive move, Mirabella takes Verity under her wing, insisting that she come to stay with her at the villa until she can sort out her future. After all, who better to provide solace to the heartbroken Verity than the thrice-married and thrice-divorced Mirabella?

On the dangerous, winding drive from the train station to the villa, Mirabella's Maserati is forced off the road in an act so dastardly it could only have been deliberate. When the two women are extricated from the wreckage, amazingly relatively unharmed, they meet Chad Prescott, an eligible doctor who is Mirabella's new neighbor, and the Colonel, a smoldering police detective who initially blames Mirabella for the accident.

"THE CHARMERS includes the lavish settings, sympathetic characters and trademark tension that make each novel by Elizabeth Adler a page-turning read."

Before Mirabella has time to settle in, she finds that while her aunt left her all of her money, possessions and pets, she signed the deed to the Villa Romantica over to Chad without notifying the lawyer who prepared her will. In a cryptic comment to Chad, Aunt Jolly had mentioned that it might not be safe for her heir to take ownership of the house after all.

Aware of the problems Verity and Mirabella face regarding their personal safety, a rich, mysterious Russian who lives nearby, known to all and sundry as The Boss, takes an interest in their predicament and offers them his assistance and protection. While The Boss appears to be an engaging man without an agenda, the shivers he sends up and down their spines should give them an indication of things to come.

Interwoven with Mirabella's and Verity's stories is the tale of Jerusha, the femme fatale whose lover had the Villa Romantica built for her decades ago. Born into a family that had known only destitution, Jeshua rose to great heights as her mother pushed her forward into the limelight of the stage and into the arms of men who could do her the most good.

When Verity disappears while attending a decadent party hosted by The Boss and is subsequently found drugged and nearly drowned, it's time for everyone to join forces and discover who is targeting the pair and what it is they hope to gain by the demise of one or both women.

THE CHARMERS includes the lavish settings, sympathetic characters and trademark tension that make each novel by Elizabeth Adler a page-turning read. Plus, the decades-old story of Jerusha adds a heart-tugging twist that ensures that readers root for all involved to find their happily-ever-afters.