Martin Talbot is told his mother, Judy, who has Alzheimer's, is getting worse and the end of her life is drawing near. Even though he's known the day would come, he's still heartbroken to think that his once vibrant and vivacious mother, who led a secret life as the Black Stiletto, is close to dying. Nearly 12 months have gone by since Martin uncovered his mother's past as the Black Stiletto, and there are still so many unanswered questions. Martin ponders if his birth was the reason she gave up her Black Stiletto persona all those years ago. With two of Judy's diaries left to read; one covering 1961 and the other 1962, the year he was born, Martin realizes it's time to finally read them.

In the fourth book, 1961, Martin discovers that Judy left New York for Los Angeles after meeting the persuasive and alluring Leo, a man with some dubious underworld connections. As she gets to know others connected to Leo, the Stiletto's new life in LA takes an ominous turn. And the closing entry in her diary is an explosive one. Could some of those connections now be a threat to Martin and his family? We won't know the answer until the final diary installment is read.

As the fourth book in a five-book series, Raymond Benson's THE BLACK STILETTO: SECRETS & LIES grips the reader's interest with further tales of this fearless, if at times impulsive, woman who was ahead of her times. In the Stiletto's diaries, historical facts in the late 1950s and the early 1960s are interwoven nicely with her life and how she was affected by those events. In the present, dealing with what's revealed about his mother's past makes life difficult for Martin, who tries to protect his daughter Gina from the fallout. I'm truly hooked and can't wait for the concluding chapter, THE BLACK STILETTO: ENDINGS & BEGINNINGS, set for publication November 2014.

Book Summary

It is 1961 in the fourth book of the "Black Stiletto" series. Judy, the Stiletto, meets Leo, a charismatic man who convinces her to move to Los Angeles when she is "run out" of New York by increasingly hazardous police heat. But soon Judy suspects that Leo is not the white knight she first thought.

Leo, who has connections with the West Coast mobs, has plenty of skeletons in his closet. His mysterious sister, Christina, who once served time for armed robbery, could also be a threat to the Stiletto's new life in California. Meanwhile, in the present, Alzheimer's-stricken Judy takes a turn for the worse as Martin comes to grips with the imminent end of his mother's life.

And when elements from the Stiletto's past once again appear to threaten Martin's family, it is up to his daughter Gina to step up and take matters into her own hands. In a novel bristling with mysteries, secrets, and lies, the Black Stiletto saga takes a dark left turn into even more treacherous territory.