As in the lives of people we all know, this story presents a dozen fictional Santa Feans trying to love, yet mistreating, each other the week before US forces invade Iraq. “The aggression that dominates American life today,” says author Michael Scofield, “goads them into brandishing their dark sides.” Married realtor Maxine Morgan, for instance, coaxes conservative mortgage broker Ron Kirkpatrick (and others) into bed. Ron’s not-quite-yet-psychotic wife Lila tries to seduce handyman Victor...