Monogamy

This is the third book of The Libertine trilogy. A mature Robert Gattling is unprepared for his mate of 26 years, Mardi Johnson, dying before he does. Just apprised of her decision to stop treatment for cancer, he is assailed by a woman he has been only vaguely aware of: Tan Xiaoqing, “Little Blue,” daughter of Gattling’s first wife, Mary Clare Morrison, by her second husband, a Chinese official. Blue, as she calls herself, is conflicted about her racial mixture and somehow blames Gattling for forsaking her mother for Mardi. But when she learns Mardi is dying, Blue’s compassion, plus a growing attraction to Gattling, keeps her in his life while he flails about, trying to make sense of Mardi’s death. He isolates himself in a mountain cabin, where he has a second woman, a retired call girl named Becky Piquot, blunder into his life. She needs rescuing and he obliges. While he’s away in the mountains presumably ordering his life, Mary Clare and Blue, long estranged, are patching things up while Blue sits Gattling’s house. When he gets back from the mountains the two of them are ensconced in his house, and he’s treated to two attractive women hinting they want him. Becky requires further rescuing (rescuing is Gattling’s forte) when threatened by a bad egg from her past life. It boils down to this: will Gattling do a second stint with Mary Clare, continue to rescue the retired call girl or enter a final monogamous relationship with the conflicted Blue? He’s no longer the randy libertine, so the question won’t be answered by hormones, it’s a matter of mind and heart.