Outlaws

A lot of people are attracted to their in-laws. But they pay attention to the warning signals. Usually prudent, history professor Jon Marcus has blundered through the flashing red lights. Twice. He's sleeping with his brother's wife and his wife's sister. Compounding Marcus's problems is the fallout, twenty-five years later, from a teenage romance with his cousin. When Jon's mother is diagnosed with lung cancer, relations with his wife, his contentious brothers, and the sisters-in-law begin to unravel.

Outlaws is more than the story of illicit affairs with relatives. Marcus is helping direct an unorthodox production of The Magic Flute, with a subversive take on Sarastro and the Queen of the Night. He also volunteers at his local animal shelter on weekends, where he walks the dogs that will be euthanized on Monday. These activities weave their way into the plot, as does his passion for Venice and his curiosity about "the sister-in-law problem" in European history.

Set in Tampa, Los Angeles, New York, and Las Vegas, and Venice, California, and Venice, Italy, Outlaws is an erudite, entertaining, and moving narrative about some of the most dangerous of liaisons, a subject that's apparently taboo even today. The disgruntled academics, eccentric singers, quarrelsome brothers, appealing cousins, and seductive sisters-in-law are rendered with sympathy and wit, and their tragicomic story is one that readers won't soon forget.