The Third Side (Paperback)

As the gatekeeper of the Malibu social scene, Alana Fox is used to helping her clients with finding a bridge group, or even a new man.

When Hollywood widow Francis Ferguson contacts Alana, however, she’s in search of something a bit more complicated–something that will throw Alana in the middle of some decades-old family secrets that continue to cause damage after all these years.

With Alana’s help, Francis hopes to reconnect with some old girlfriends—really old girlfriends, dating back to glamorous 1940s Hollywood, where she worked as a seamstress before marrying studio tycoon Milton Ferguson. The girls had bonded while stitching hems and taking in waistbands for some of Hollywood’s biggest stars but lost contact as they each married and moved on with their lives.

Bringing together the group of gal-pals may be tougher than it seems though, especially when a tragic event puts the happy reunion on hold. Soon, Alana finds herself uncovering some shocking secrets—secrets that indicate that Francis’s past may have a darker side than she could ever imagine.

From scandalous affairs to forged documents, Alana digs deeper and deeper to put the pieces together and close the book on this captivating mystery for good.

M. A. Simonetti, a graduate of the Mystery Writing Program at the University of Washington, is the author of the Malibu Mystery Series, of which The Third Side is the second book. The series follows protagonist Alana Fox, the forty-seven-year-old gatekeeper of the Malibu social scene, as she solves fascinating local mysteries.

As a "Woman of a Certain Age," Simonetti recognizes the lack of heroines in the over forty age group in popular fiction and is doing her part to provide a broader representation.

The author divides her time between the heavy traffic of Southern California and the rainy weather of what she calls the "Pacific North Wet."