Open Secrets: A True Story of Love, Jealousy, and Murder

“One of the most remarkable true crime books I’ve ever read.” —Ann Rule

On a fall afternoon in 1983, in an upscale Dallas suburb, Rozanne Gailiunas was found stripped, bound to her bed, and shot through the skull. Her four-year-old son has been napping peacefully in the next room when she was killed. Rozanne’s husband, Dr. Peter Gailiunas—and her lover, Larry Aylor—immediately fell under suspicion. Until a surprise informant identified the mastermind behind the murder as Aylor’s own wife, Joy—a woman so driven by jealousy and greed that she put out a contract on both Rozanne and later her own husband.

On the run and managing to elude investigators for eight years, the two-year search for the socialite would eventually end in the south of France. There, authorities found the elusive femme fatale, living as comfortably among the world’s elite as she was among hired killers. At last, the authorities’ questions would be answered, to reveal a shocking insight into the heart of an unlikely killer, and a small-town Texas crime that made international headlines.

“A masterpiece of murder and betrayal, Texas-style.” —Faye Kellerman, author of Grievous Sin

“If Truman Capote invented the genre with In Cold Blood and Tommy Thompson improved on it with Blood and Money, Carlton Stowers has perfected the true crime story with Open Secrets.” —The Dallas Morning News

“A must-read. Filled with more twists, surprises, and suspicious characters than even the most fertile imaginations could concoct . . . a difficult book to put down.” —Tulsa World